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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 


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Class 


THE     KEY     TO     THEOSOPHY 


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HELENA    PETROVNA    BLAVATSKY 
FouNi)Ri;ss    OK    THE   Theosophicai,    Movement 


WILLIAM   QUAN   JUDGE 
Successor  to   H.   P.   Bi.avatskv 


OF  THE 
,.»firDeiTY 


THE 

Key  to  Theosophy 

BEING 

A    CLEAR    EXPOSITION   IN    THE    FORM 
OF  QUESTION  AND  ANSWER 

OF    THE 

ETHICS,    SCIENCE,    AND    PHILOSOPHY, 

FOR  THE  STUDY   OF  WHICH 

THE    UNIVERSAL    BROTHERHOOD    AND    THEOSOPHICAL   SOCIETY 

HAS   BEEN   FOUNDED 
WITH     A 

COPIOUS  GLOSSARY  OF  GENERAL  THEOSOPHICAL  TERMS 

B  y 

H.    P.    BLAVATSKY 


POINT     LOMA     EDITION 

Including  an  Exhaustive  Index 


REVISED  AND  EDITED  BY 

KATHERINE     TINGLEY 


XTbe   ar^an   XTbeosopbical    press 

POINT    LOMA,    CALIFORNIA 

1907 


no] 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  Year  i8Sp,  by 
H.  P.  BLAVATSKY, 

in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at   Washington,  D.   C. 


The  Aryan  Theosophical  Press 
Puint  Loma,  California 


DEDICATED 
BY 

TO    ALL.    HER    PUPILS, 
THAT 
THEr    MAY    LEARN   AND    TEACH 
IN     THEIR     TURN. 


1.  .y^' 


374 


CONTENTS 

SECTION  I 
Theosophy  and  the  Theosophicai.  Society 

PACE 

The  Meaning  of  the  Name       ........  1 

The  Policy  of  the  Theosophical  Society   ......  5 

The  Wisclom-ReHgion  Esoteric  in  All  Ages       .....  8 

Theosophy  is  not  Buddhism    ........  14 

SECTION  II 

Exoteric  and  Esoteric  Theosophy 

What  the  Modern  Theosophical   Society  is  not         .  .  .  .17 

Theosophists  and  Members  of  the  Theosophical  Society    .  .  .21 

The  Difference  between  Theosophy  and  Occultism       .  .  .  .26 

The  Difference  between  Theosophy  and  Spiritualism  .  .  .  .28 

Why  is  Theosophy  Accepted?  .......     35 

SECTION  III 
The  Working  System  oe  the  Theosophicae  Society 

The  Objects  of  the   Society    ........  40 

The  Common  Origin  of  Man  ........  42 

Our  Other  Objects 47 

On  the  Sacredness  of  the  Pledge    .......  48 


CONTENTS 

SECTION  IV 
The  Relations  of  the  Theosophical  Society  to  Theosopiiy 


PAGE 


On   Self-Improvement      .........     52 

The  Abstract  and  the  Concrete  .......     56 


SECTION  V 
The  Fundamental  Teachings  of  Theosophy 

On  God  and  Prayer 

Is  it  Necessary  to  Pray? 

Prayer  Kills  Self -Reliance 

On  the  Source  of  the  Human  Soul  . 

The  Buddhist  Teachings  on  the  Above 


61 
66 
71 
74 
76 


SECTION  VI 
Theosophicae  Teachings  as  to  Nature  and  Man 

The  Unity  of  All  in  All  . 

Evolution   and   Illusion    .... 

On  the  Septenary  Constitution  of  our  Planet 

The  Septenary  Nature  of  Man 

The  Distinction  between  Soul  and  Spirit  . 

The  Greek  Teachings      .... 


82 
83 
87 
89 
92 
96 


SECTION  VII 
On  the  Various  Post-Mortem  States 

The  Physical  and  the  Spiritual  Man 

On  Eternal  Reward  and  Punishment,  and  on  Nirvana 

On  the  Various  "  Principles  "  in  Man 


100 
108 
115 


CONTENTS  yii 

SECTION  VIII 
On  Reincarnation  or  Rebirth 

PAGE 

What  is  Memory  according  to  Theosophical  Teaching?       .  .  .122 

Why  do  we  not  Remember  our  Past  Lives?       .....    126 

On   IndividuaHty   and   PersonaUty    .......    133 

On  the  Reward  and  Punishment  of  the  Ego       .  .  .  .  .136 

SECTION  IX 

On  Kamaloka  and  Devachan 

On  the  Fate  of  the  Lower  "  Principles  "  .  .  .  .  .  .    142 

Why  Theosophists  do  not  Believe  in  the  Return  of  Pure  "  Spirits  "       .    145 
A  Few  Words  about  the  Skandhas  .......    153 

On  Post-AIortem  and  Post-Natal  Consciousness  .  .  .  .155 

What  is  Really  Meant  by  Annihilation       ......    161 

Definite  Words  for  Definite  Things  ......    169 

SECTION  X 

On  the  Nature  oe  our  Thinking  Principle 

The  Mystery  of  the  Ego 174 

The  Complex  Nature  of  Manas       .......    179 

The  Doctrine  is  Taught  in  St.  John's  Gospel       .....    182 

SECTION  XI 

On  the  Mysteries  oe  Reincarnation 

Periodical  Rebirths 194 

What  is   Karma? 198 

Who  are  Those  who  Know?   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .211 

The  Difference  between  Faith  and  Knowledge ;  or,  Blind  and  Reasoned 

Faith 214 

Has  God  the  Right  to  Forgive? 218 


CONTENTS 


SECTION  XII 
What  is  Practical  Theosophy? 

PAGE 

Duty 223 

The  Relations  of  the  Theosophical  Society  to  Political  Reforms  .  .   227 

On  Self-Sacrifice  .........   233 

On  Charity 238 

Theosophy  for  the  Masses       ........   241 

How  Members  can  Help  the  Society  ......   244 

What  a  Theosophist  ought  Not  to  Do 245 


SECTION  XIII 
On  the  Misconceptions  about  the  Theosophical  Society 

Theosophy  and  Asceticism       ........   254 

Theosophy  and  Marriage  ........  258 

Theosophy  and   Education        ........   259 

Why,  then,  is  there  so  much  Prejudice  against  the  Theosophical  Society?  267 


SECTION  XIV 
The  Theosophical  "  Mahatmas  " 

Are  They  "  Spirits  of  Light "  or  "  Goblins  Damn'd  "  ? 
The  Abuse  of  Sacred  Names  and  Terms  . 


276 
288 


CONCLUSION 

The  Future  of  the  Theosophical  Society  . 

Glossary 

Index  

Appendix       ...... 


.  292 

.  297 
.  357 
.  385 


PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  exactly  expressed  in  its  title,  "  The; 
Key  to  Theosophy/'  and  needs  but  few  words  of  explanation.  It  is 
not  a  complete  or  exhaustive  text-book  of  Theosophy,  but  only  a  key 
to  unlock  the  door  that  leads  to  the  deeper  study.  It  traces  the  broad 
outlines  of  the  Wisdom  Religion,  and  explains  its  fundamental  principles; 
meeting,  at  the  same  time,  the  various  objections  raised  by  the  average 
Western  enquirer,  and  endeavoring  to  present  unfamiliar  concepts  in  a 
form  as  simple  and  in  language  as  clear  as  possible.  That  it  should 
succeed  in  making  Theosophy  intelligible  without  mental  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  reader,  would  be  too  much  to  expect;  but  it  is  hoped  that 
the  obscurity  still  left  is  of  the  thought  not  of  the  language,  is  due  to 
depth  not  to  confusion.  To  the  mentally  lazy  or  obtuse,  Theosophy 
must  remain  a  riddle;  for  in  the  world  mental  as  in  the  world  spiritual 
each  man  must  progress  by  his  own  efforts.  The  writer  cannot  do  the 
reader's  thinking  for  him,  nor  would  the  latter  be  any  the  better  off 
if  such  vicarious  thought  were  possible.     The  need  for  such  an  exposition 


jj  PREFACE 

as  the  present  has  long  been  felt  among  those  interested  in  Theosophy, 
the  Society,  and  its  work,  and  it  is  hoped  that  it  will  supply  information, 
as  free  as  possible  from  technicalities,  to  many  whose  attention  has  been 
awakened,  but  who,  as  yet,  are  merely  puzzled  but  not  convinced. 

Some  care  has  been  taken  in  disentangling  some  part  of  what  is  true 
from  what  is  false  in  Spiritualistic  teachings  as  to  the  post-mortem  life, 
and  to  show  the  true  nature  of  Spiritualistic  phenomena.  Previous  ex- 
planations of  a  similar  kind  have  drawn  much  wrath  upon  the  writer's 
devoted  head;  the  Spiritualists,  like  too  many  others,  preferring  to  believe 
what  is  pleasant  rather  than  what  is  true,  and  becoming  very  angry 
with  any  one  who  destroys  an  agreeable  delusion.  For  the  past  year 
Theosophy  has  been  the  target  for  every  poisoned  arrow  of  Spiritualism, 
as  though  the  possessors  of  a  half  truth  felt  more  antagonism  to  the 
possessors  of  the  whole  truth  than  those  who  had  no  share  to  boast  of. 

Very  hearty  thanks  are  due  from  the  author  to  many  Theosophists 
who  have  sent  suggestions  and  questions,  or  have  otherwise  contributed 
help  during  the  writing  of  this  book.  The  work  will  be  the  more  useful 
for  their  aid,  and  that  will  be  their  best  reward. 

H.  P.  B. 

London,  1889. 


PREFACE 

TO     THE 

POINT      LOMA      EDITION 


The  great  demand  for  the  Key  —  which  is  essentially  a  book  for 
students,  for  those  who  desire  to  enter  upon  a  serious  study  of  Theosophy 
—  has  necessitated  a  new  edition.  And  still  further  to  elucidate  some 
of  the  subjects  treated  therein,  and  to  bring  the  book  up  to  date  in  view 
of  the  great  expansion  of  the  work  of  the  Theosophical  Movement  since 
the  reorganization  of  the  Society  in  1898,  a  few  quotations  have  been 
given  from  the  writings  of  William  Q.  Judge,  successor  to  H.  P.  Blavatsky 
and  the  second  Leader  of  the  Theosophical  Movement  throughout  the  world, 
and  also  from  some  of  those  who  have  been  students  under  my  two  Prede- 
cessors and  myself.  All  such  additional  quotations  are  placed  in  square 
brackets.  A  few  passages  omitted  from  the  Second  Revised  American 
Edition  have  been  reinserted,  thus  preserving  the  historical  continuity  of 
the  work  down  to  the  present  day.     A  few  explanatory  notes  have  also 


j^ii  PREFACE 

been   added.     The   Glossary,   added   by   H.    P.    Blavatsky   to   her   second 
edition,  is  also  included,  together  with  a  new  and  enlarged  Index. 

Throughout  the  work  H,  P.  Blavatsky  speaks  of  the  Society  as  the 
Theosophical  Society,  although  its  full  name  was  the  Theosophical 
Society  and  UniversaIv  Brotherhood.  Since  the  reorganization  in  1898 
the  terms  of  its  title  have  been  transposed  to  stand  as  they  now  do:  the 
Universal  Brotherhood  and  TheosophicaIv  Society.  The  International 
Headquarters  of  the  organization  are  at  Point  Loma,  California,  U.  S.  A. 
Attention  is  called  to  footnotes  11  and  60. 

Katherine  TiNGIvEY 

Point  Loma,  March  13,  1907. 


THE   KEY   TO    THEOSOPHY 


I 

THEOSOPHY  AND  THE  THEOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY^ 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  NAME 

Inquirer.  Theosophy  and  its  doctrines  are  often  referred  to  as  a  new- 
fangled religion.      Is  it  a  religion? 

Theosophist.  It  is  not.  Theosophy  is  Divine  Knowledge  or 
Science. 

Inq.     What  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  term  ? 

ThEo.  Divine  Wisdom,  TJicosophia  ( ©eoo-ot^ta ) ,  or  Wisdom  of 
the  gods,  as  thcogouia  {BtoyovCa.),  genealogy  of  the  gods. 
The  word  6^6%  means  a  god  in  Greek,  one  of  the  divine  beings, 
certainly  not  "God"  in  the  sense  attached  in  our  day  to  the 
term.  Therefore  it  is  not  "  Wisdom  of  God,"  as  translated 
by  some,  but  Divine  Wisdom  such  as  that  possessed  by  the 
gods.     The  term  is  many  thousand  years  old. 

1.     See  Footnote  H. 


2  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Inq.     What  is  the  origin  of  the  name? 

ThEo.  It  comes  to  us  from  the  Alexandrian  philosophers,  called 
lovers  of  truth,  Philaletheians,  from  phil  («^tX),  "loving," 
and  aletheia  (  aX-qe^ut ),  "  truth."  The  name  Theosophy  dates 
from  the  third  century  of  our  era,  and  began  with  Ammonius 
Saccas  and  his  disciples,  who  started  the  Eclectic  Theosoph- 
ical  system,  and  were  also  called  Analogeticists.  As  ex- 
plained by  Professor  Alexander  Wilder,  M.  D.,  in  his  New 
Platonism  and  Alchemy,^  they  were  so  called  — 

Because  of  their  practice  of  interpreting  all  sacred  legends  and  nar- 
ratives, myths  and  mysteries,  by  a  rule  or  principle  of  analogy  and 
correspondence,  so  that  events  which  were  related  as  having  occurred 
in  the  external  world  were  regarded  as  expressing  operations  and  ex- 
periences of  the  human  soul. 

They  were  also  denominated  Neo-Platonists.  Though 
Theosophy,  or  the  Eclectic  Theosophical  system,  is  generally 
attributed  to  the  third  century,  yet,  if  Diogenes  Laertius  is  to 
be  credited,  its  origin  is  much  earlier,  as  he  attributed  the  sys- 
tem to  an  Egyptian  priest,  Pot  Amun,  who  lived  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Ptolemaic  dynasty.  The  same  author  tells  us 
that  the  name  is  Coptic,  and  signifies  one  consecrated  to  Am- 
un, the  God  of  Wisdom.  Theosophy  is  the  equivalent  of  the 
Sanskrit  Brahma-Vidyd,  divine  knowledge. 

Inq,     What  was  the  object  of  this  system? 

ThEo.  First  of  all  to  inculcate  certain  great  moral  truths  upon 
its  disciples  and  all  those  who  were  "  lovers  of  the  truth." 

2.  A  Sketch  of  the  Doctrines  and  Principal  Teachers  of  the  Eclectic  or  Alexandrian 
School;  also  an  Outline  of  the  Interior  Doctrines  of  the  Alchemists  of  the 
Middle  Ages.    Albany,   N.   Y.,   1869. 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  3 

Hence  also  the  motto  adopted  by  the  Theosophical  Society: 
"  There  is  no  rehgion  higher  than  truth." 

Eclectic  Theosophy  was  divided  under  three  heads: 
(1)  Belief  in  one  absolute,  incomprehensible  and  supreme 
Deity,  or  infinite  essence,  which  is  the  root  of  all  nature, 
and  of  all  that  is,  visible  and  invisible.  (2)  Belief  in  man's 
eternal  immortal  nature,  which,  being  a  radiation  of  the  Uni- 
versal Soul,  is  of  an  identical  essence  with  it.  (3)  Theurgy, 
or  "  divine  work,"  or  producing  a  zvork  of  gods;  from  theoi, 
"  gods,"  and  ergein,  "  to  work."  The  term  is  very  old,  but, 
as  it  belongs  to  the  vocabulary  of  the  mysteries,  was  not  in 
popular  use.  It  was  a  mystic  belief  —  practically  proven  by 
initiated  adepts  and  priests  —  that,  by  making  oneself  as 
pure  as  the  incorporeal  beings  —  i.  e.,  by  returning  to  one's 
pristine  purity  of  nature  —  man  could  move  the  gods  to  im- 
part to  him  Divine  mysteries,  and  even  cause  them  to  become 
occasionally  visible,  either  subjectively  or  objectively.  It  was 
the  transcendental  aspect  of  what  is  now  called  "  Spiritual- 
ism," but  having  been  abused  and  misconceived  by  the  popul- 
ace, it  had  come  to  be  regarded  by  some  as  necromancy,  and 
was  generally  forbidden.  A  travestied  practice  of  the  the- 
urgy of  lamblichus  lingers  still  in  the  ceremonial  magic  of 
some  modern  Kabalists.  Modern  Theosophy  avoids  and  re- 
jects both  these  kinds  of  magic  and  "necromancy"  as  being 
very  dangerous.  Real  divine  theurgy  requires  an  almost 
superhuman  purity  and  holiness  of  life;  otherwise  it  degen- 
erates into  mediumship  or  black  magic.  The  immediate  dis- 
ciples of  Ammonius  Saccas,  who  was  called  Theodidakfos, 
"  god-taught  "  —  such  as  Plotinus  and  his  follower  Porphyry 
—  rejected  theurgy  at  first,  but  were  finally  reconciled  to  it 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

through  lambhchus,  who  wrote  a  work  to  that  effect  entitled 
De  Mysteriis,  under  the  name  of  his  own  master,  a  famous 
Egyptian  priest  called  Abammon.  Ammonius  Saccas  was 
the  son  of  Christian  parents;  but  being  from  his  childhood 
repelled  by  dogmatic  spiritualistic  Christianity,  he  became 
a  Neo-Platonist  and,  like  Jakob  Bohme  and  other  great 
seers  and  mystics,  is  said  to  have  had  divine  wisdom  re- 
vealed to  him  in  dreams  and  visions.  Hence  his  name  of 
Theodidaktos,  He  resolved  to  reconcile  every  system  of  re- 
ligion, and  by  demonstrating  their  identical  origin  to  establish 
one  universal  creed  based  on  ethics.  His  life  was  so  blame- 
less and  pure,  his  learning  so  profound  and  vast,  that  several 
church  fathers  were  his  secret  disciples.  Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus  speaks  very  highly  of  him.  Plotinus,  the  "  St.  John  " 
of  Ammonius,  was  also  a  man  universally  respected  and  es- 
teemed, and  of  the  most  profound  learning  and  integrity. 
When  thirty-nine  years  of  age  he  accompanied  the  Roman 
Emperor  Gordian  and  his  army  to  the  East,  to  be  instructed 
by  the  sages  of  Bactria  and  India.  He  had  a  school  of  phil- 
osophy in  Rome.  Porphyry,  his  disciple,  a  Hellenized  Jew, 
whose  real  name  was  Malek,  collected  all  the  writings  of  his 
master.  Porphyry  was  also  himself  a  great  author,  and  gave 
an  allegorical  interpretation  of  some  parts  of  Homer's  writ- 
ings. The  system  of  meditation  the  Philaletheians  resorted 
to  was  ecstasy,  a  system  akin  to  Indian  Yoga  practice.  What 
is  known  of  the  Eclectic  school  is  due  to  Origen,  Longinus 
and  Plotinus,  the  immediate  disciples  of  Ammonius.^ 

The  chief  aim  of  the  founders  of  the  Eclectic  Theosophical 

3.     For     further    information    see    Dr.      Wilder's    pamphlet. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  S 

school  was  one  of  the  three  objects  of  its  modern  successor, 
the  Theosophical  Society,  namely,  to  reconcile  all  religions, 
sects  and  nations  under  a  common  system  of  ethics  based  on 
eternal  verities. 

Inq.  What  have  you  to  show  that  this  is  not  an  impossible  dream,  and 
that  all  the  world's  religions  are  based  on  one  and  the  same  truth? 

ThEo.  Their  comparative  study  and  analysis.  The  "  Wisdom- 
Religion  "  was  one  in  antiquity ;  and  the  sameness  of  primi- 
tive religious  philosophy  is  proven  to  us  by  the  identical  doc- 
trines taught  to  the  Initiates  during  the  MYSTERIES,  an 
institution  once  universally  diffused.     As  Dr.  Wilder  says: 

All  the  old  worships  indicate  the  existence  of  a  single  Theosophy 
anterior  to  them.  The  key  that  is  to  open  one  must  open  all ;  other- 
wise it  cannot  be  the  rigfht  kev. 


THE  POLICY  OF  THE  THEOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY 

Inq.  In  the  days  of  Ammonius  there  were  several  great  ancient  religions, 
and  the  sects  in  Eg\'pt  and  Palestine  alone  were  numerous.  How 
could  he  reconcile  them? 

ThEo.  By  doing  that  which  we  again  try  to  do  now.  The  Neo- 
Platonists  were  a  large  body,  and  belonged  to  various  relig- 
ious philosophies ;  so  do  our  Theosophists. 

It  was  under  Philadelphus  that  Judaism  established  itself 
in  Alexandria,  and  forthwith  the  Hellenic  teachers  became 
the  dangerous  rivals  of  the  College  of  Rabbis  of  Babylon. 
As  the  author  of  Nezv  Platonism  very  pertinently  remarks : 

The  Buddhistic,  Vedantic,  and  Afagian  systems  were  expounded 
along  with   the  philosophies  of   Greece  at  that   period.     It   was  not 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

wonderful  that  thoughtful  men  supposed  that  the  strife  of  words  ought 
to  cease,  and  considered  it  possible  to  extract  one  harmonious  system 
from  these  various  teachings.  .  .  .  Pantgenus,  Athenagoras  and  Clem- 
ent were  thoroughly  instructed  in  the  Platonic  philosophy,  and  com- 
prehended its  essential  unity  with  the  Oriental  systems. 

In  those  days  the  Jew  Aristobulus  affirmed  that  the  ethics 
of  Aristotle  represented  the  esoteric  teachings  of  the  law  of 
Moses ;  Philo  Judaeus  endeavored  to  reconcile  the  Pentateuch 
with  the  Pythagorean  and  Platonic  philosophy ;  and  Josephus 
proved  that  the  Essenes  of  Carmel  were  simply  the  copyists 
and  followers  of  the  Egyptian  Therapeutse,  or  healers.  So 
it  is  in  our  day.  We  can  show  the  line  of  descent  of  every 
Christian  religion,  as  of  every  —  even  the  smallest  —  sect. 
The  latter  are  the  minor  twigs  or  shoots  grown  on  the  larger 
branches;  but  shoots  and  branches  spring  from  the  same 
trunk  —  the  WISDOM-RELIGION.  To  prove  this  was  the 
aim  of  Ammonius,  who  endeavored  to  induce  Gentiles  and 
Christians,  Jews  and  Idolaters,  to  lay  aside  their  contentions 
and  strifes,  remembering  only  that  they  were  all  in  possession 
of  the  same  truth  under  various  vestments,  and  were  all  the 
children  of  a  common  mother.  This  is  the  aim  of  Theosophy 
likewise.     Says  Mosheim  of  Ammonius: 

Conceiving  that  not  only  the  philosophers  of  Greece,  but  also  all 
those  of  the  different  barbarian  nations,  were  perfectly  in  unison  with 
each  other  with  regard  to  every  essential  point,  [he]  made  it  his  busi- 
ness so  to  expound  the  thousand  tenets  of  all  these  various  sects  as 
to  show  they  had  all  originated  from  one  and  the  same  source,  and 
tended  all  to  one  and  the  same  end. 

If  the  writer  on  Ammonius  in  the  Bdinburgh  Bncyclo- 
pcedia  knows  what  he  is  talking  about,  then  he  describes 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  7 

the  modern  Theosophists,  their  beliefs  and  their  work,  for 
he  says,  speaking  of  the  Theodidaktos: 

He  adopted  the  doctrines  which  were  received  in  Egypt  [the  esoteric 
were  those  of  India]  concerning  the  Universe  and  the  Deity,  consid- 
ered as  constituting  one  great  whole;  concerning  the  eternity  of  the 
world.  .  .  .  and  established  a  system  of  moral  discipline  which  al- 
lowed the  people  in  general  to  live  according  to  the  laws  of  their  country 
and  the  dictates  of  Nature,  but  required  the  wise  to  exalt  their  mind  by 
contemplation. 

Inq.  What  are  your  authorities  for  saying  this  of  the  ancient  Theo- 
sophists of  Alexandria? 

Theo.  An  almost  countless  number  of  well-known  writers. 
Mosheim  —  one  of  them  —  says  that  Ammonius  taught 
that  — 

The  religion  of  the  multitude  went  hand  in  hand  with  philosophy, 
and  with  her  had  shared  the  fate  of  being  by  degrees  corrupted  and  ob- 
scured with  mere  human  conceits,  superstitions  and  lies;  and  it  ought 
therefore,  to  be  brought  back  to  its  original  purity  by  purging  it  of  this 
dross  and  expounding  it  upon  philosophical  principles ;  and  the  whole 
Christ  had  in  view  was  to  reinstate  and  restore  to  its  primitive  in- 
tegrity the  Wisdom  of  the  ancients,  to  reduce  within  bounds  the  uni- 
versally prevailing  dominion  of  superstition;  and  in  part  to  correct, 
and  in  part  to  exterminate,  the  various  errors  that  had  found  their  way 
into  the  different  popular  religions. 

This  again,  is  precisely  what  the  modern  Theosophists  say ; 
only  while  the  great  Philaletheian  was  supported  and  helped 
in  the  policy  he  pursued  by  two  church  fathers,  Clement  and 
Athenagoras,  by  the  learned  rabbis  of  the  synagogue,  by  the 
philosophers  of  the  Academy  and  the  Grove,  and  while  he 
taught  a  common  doctrine  for  all,  we,  his  followers  on  the 
same  line,  receive  no  recognition  but,  on  the  contrary,  are 


8  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

'  abused  and  persecuted.  People  fifteen  hundred  years  ago 
are  thus  shown  to  have  been  more  tolerant  than  they  are  in 
this  enlightened  century. 

Inq.  Was  Ammonius  encouraged  and  supported  by  the  Church  because, 
notwithstanding  his  heresies,  he  taught  Christianity  and  was  a 
Christian  ? 

Thko.  Not  at  all.  He  was  born  a  Christian,  but  never  accepted 
Church  Christianity.     As  said  of  him  by  Dr.  Wilder : 

He  had  but  to  propound  his  instructions  "according  to  the  ancient 
pillars  of  Hermes,  which  Plato  and  Pythagoras  knew  before,  and  from 
them  constituted  their  philosophy."  Finding  the  same  in  the  prologue 
of  the  Gospel  according  to  John,  he  very  properly  supposed  that  the 
purpose  of  Jesus  was  to  restore  the  great  doctrine  of  Wisdom  in  its 
primitive  integrity.  The  narratives  of  the  Bible  and  the  stories  of  the 
Gods  he  considered  to  be  allegories  illustrative  of  the  truth,  or  else 
fables  to  be  rejected. 

Moreover,  as  says  the  Bdinhurgh  Encyclopaedia: 

He  acknowledged  that  Jesus  Christ  was  an  excellent  man  and  the 
friend  of  God,  but  alleged  that  it  was  not  his  design  entirely  to  abolish 
the  worship  of  demons  [gods],  and  that  his  only  intention  was  to 
purify  the  ancient  religion. 


THE  WISDOM-RELIGION  ESOTERIC  IN  ALL  AGES 

Inq.  Since  Ammonius  never  committed  anything  to  writing,  how  can  one 
feel  sure  that  such  were  his  teachings? 

ThKO.  Neither  did  Buddha,  Pythagoras,  Confucius,  Orpheus, 
Socrates,  nor  even  Jesus,  leave  behind  them  any  writings. 
Yet  most  of  these  are  historical  personages  and  their  teach- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  9 

ings  have  all  survived.  The  disciples  of  Ammonius,  among 
whom  were  Origen  and  Herennius,  wrote  treatises  and  ex- 
plained his  ethics.  Certainly  the  latter  are  as  historical,  if 
not  more  so,  than  the  apostolic  writings.  Moreover,  his  pu- 
pils —  Origen,  Plotinus  and  Longinus,  counselor  of  the  fam- 
ous Queen  Zenobia  —  have  all  left  voluminous  records  of  the 
Philaletheian  system  —  so  far,  at  all  events,  as  their  public 
profession  of  faith  was  known;  for  the  school  was  divided 
into  exoteric  and  esoteric  teachings. 

Inq.  How  have  the  latter  tenets  reached  our  day,  since  you  hold  that 
what  is  properly  called  the  WISDOM-RELIGION  was  esoteric? 

Theo.  The  WISDOM-RELIGION  was  ever  one  and  the  same, 
and  being  the  last  word  of  possible  human  knowledge,  was 
therefore  carefully  preserved.  It  preceded  by  long  ages  the 
Alexandrian  Theosophists,  reached  the  modern,  and  will  sur- 
vive every  other  religion  and  philosophy. 

Inq.     Where  and  by  whom  was  it  so  preserved? 

Theo.  Among  Initiates  of  every  country ;  among  profound  seek- 
ers after  truth  —  their  disciples;  and  in  those  parts  of  the 
world  where  such  topics  have  always  been  most  valued  and 
pursued  —  in  India,  Central  Asia  and  Persia. 

Inq.     Can  you  give  me  some  proofs  of  its  esotericism? 

Theo.  The  best  proof  you  can  have  of  the  fact  is  that  every  an- 
cient religious,  or  rather  philosophical,  cult  consisted  of  an 
esoteric  or  secret  teaching,  and  an  exoteric  or  outward  public 
worship.  Furthermore,  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the 
MYSTERIES  of  the  ancients  comprised  with  every  nation 
the  Greater  (secret)  and  Lesser  (public)  MYSTERIES  — 


10  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

as,  for  instance,  in  the  celebrated  solemnities  called  the  Bleu- 
sinia,  in  Greece.  From  the  Hierophants  of  Samothrace, 
Egypt,  and  the  initiated  Brahmans  of  the  India  of  old,  down 
to  the  later  Hebrew  rabbis,  all,  for  fear  of  profanation,  kept 
their  real  boua-fide  beliefs  secret.  The  Jewish  rabbis  called 
their  secular  religious  series  the  Mercavah,  or  exterior  body, 
the  "vehicle"  or  covering  which  contains  the  hidden  soul  — 
their  highest  secret  knowledge.  The  priests  of  the  ancient 
nations  never  imparted  their  real  philosophical  secrets  to  the 
masses.  They  allotted  to  the  latter  only  the  husks.  North- 
ern Buddhism  has  its  Greater  and  its  Lesser  Vehicle,  known 
as  the  Mahdydna,  the  esoteric,  and  the  Hinaydna,  the  exo- 
teric, schools.  Nor  can  you  blame  them  for  such  secrecy; 
for  surely  you  would  not  think  of  feeding  your  flock  of  sheep 
on  learned  dissertations  on  botany  instead  of  on  grass. 
Pythagoras  called  his  Gnosis  "  the  knowledge  of  things  that 
are,"  or  yj  yvwo-is  twv  ovrw,  and  preserved  that  Knowledge  for 
his  pledged  disciples  only  —  for  those  who  could  digest  such 
mental  food  and  feel  satisfied;  whom  he  pledged  to  silence 
and  secrecy.  Occult  alphabets  and  secret  ciphers  are  the  de- 
velopment of  the  old  Egyptian  hieratic  writings,  the  secret  of 
which  was,  in  the  days  of  old,  in  the  possession  only  of  the 
Hierogrammatists,  or  initiated  Egyptian  priests.  Ammonius 
Saccas,  as  his  biographers  tell  us,  bound  his  pupils  by  oath 
not  to  divulge  his  higher  doctrines  except  to  those  who  had 
already  been  instructed  in  preliminary  knowledge,  and  who 
were  also  bound  by  a  pledge.  Finally,  do  we  not  find  the 
same  also  in  early  Christianity,  among  the  Gnostics,  and  even 
in  the  teachings  of  Christ?  Did  he  not  speak  to  the  multi- 
tudes in  parables  which  had  a  twofold  meaning,  and  explain 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  11 

his  reasons  only  to  his  disciples?  "  Unto  you,"  he  says,  "it 
is  given  to  know  the  mystery  of  the  kingdom  of  God:  but 
unto  them  that  are  without,  all  these  things  are  done  in  par- 
ables." ■*     And  the  author  of  Nczv  Platonism  tells  us  that  — 

The  Essenes  of  Judea  and  Carmel  made  similar  distinctions,  divid- 
ing their  adherents  into  neophytes,  brethren,  and  the  perfect  [or  those 
initiated]. 

Examples  might  be  brought  from  every  country  to  this 
efifect. 

Inq.  Can  you  attain  the  "  Secret  Wisdom  "  simply  by  study  ?  Encyclo- 
paedias define  Theosophy  pretty  much  as  Webster's  Dictionary  does, 
i.  e.,  as  "supposed  intercourse  zvith  God  and  superior  spirits,  and  con- 
sequent attainment  of  superhuman  knozvledge  by  physical  .  .  .  or  .  .  . 
chemical  processes."     Is  this  so? 

The^o.  I  think  not.  Nor  is  there  any  lexicographer  capable  of 
explaining,  whether  to  himself  or  others,  how  superhuman 
knowledge  can  be  attained  by  physical  or  chemical  processes. 
Had  Webster  said  by  metaphysical  and  alchemical  processes, 
the  definition  would  be  approximately  correct;  as  it  is,  it  is 
absurd.  Ancient  Theosophists  claimed,  and  so  do  the  mod- 
ern, that  the  infinite  cannot  be  known  by  the  finite  —  i.  e., 
sensed  by  the  finite  self  —  but  that  the  divine  essence  could  be 
communicated  to  the  higher  Spiritual  Self  in  a  state  of  ec- 
stasy. This  condition  can  hardly  be  attained,  like  hypnotism, 
by  "  physical  and  chemical  processes." 

Inq.     What  is  your  explanation  of  it? 

The:o.  Real  ecstasy  was  defined  by  Plotinus  as  "  the  liberation 
of  the  mind  from  its  finite  consciousness,  becoming  one  and 

4.     Mark,   iv,    11. 


12  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

identified  with  the  infinite."  This  is  the  highest  condition, 
says  Dr.  A.  Wilder,  but  not  one  of  permanent  duration,  and 
it  is  reached  only  by  the  very,  very  few.  It  is,  indeed,  iden- 
tical with  that  state  which  is  known  in  India  as  Samadhi. 
The  latter  is  practised  by  the  Yogis,  who  facilitate  it  phys- 
ically by  the  greatest  abstinence  in  food  and  drink,  and  men- 
tally by  an  incessant  endeavor  to  purify  and  elevate  the  mind. 
Meditation  is  silent  and  unuttered  prayer,  or,  as  Plato  ex- 
pressed it: 

The  ardent  turning  of  the  soul  toward  God ;  not  to  ask  any  particu- 
lar good  [as  in  the  common  meaning  of  prayer],  but  for  good  itself  — 
for  the  universal  Supreme  Good  [of  which  we  are  a  part  on  earth,  and 
out  of  the  essence  of  which  we  have  all  emerged].  .  .  .  Therefore  re- 
main silent  in  the  presence  of  the  divine  ones,  till  they  remove  the 
clouds  from  thy  eyes  and  enable  thee  to  see,  by  the  light  which  issues 
from  themselves,  not  what  appears  as  good  to  thee,  but  what  is  intrin- 
sically good. 

This  is  what  the  scholarly  author  of  Nezv  Platonism,  Dr.  A. 
Wilder,  describes  as  "  spiritual  photography  " : 

The  soul  is  the  camera  in  which  facts  and  events,  future,  past,  and 
present,  are  alike  fixed ;  and  the  mind  becomes  conscious  of  them. 
Beyond  our  everyday  world  of  limits,  all  is  one  day  or  state  —  the  past 
and  future  comprised  in  the  present.  .  .  .  [Death  is  the  last  ec stasis 
on  earth.]  Then  the  soul  is  freed  from  the  constraint  of  the  body, 
and  its  nobler  part  is  united  to  higher  Nature  and  becomes  partaker  in 
the  wisdom  and  foreknowledge  of  the  higher  beings. 

Real  Theosophy  is,  for  the  mystics,  that  state  which  Apol- 
lonius  of  Tyana  was  made  to  describe  thus : 

I  can  see  the  present  and  the  future  as  in  a  clear  mirror.  The  sage 
need  not  wait  for  the  vapors  of  the  earth  and  the  corruption  of  the  air 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  13 

to  foresee   [events],  .  .  .     The  thcoi,  or  gods,  see  the  future;  com- 
mon men,  the  present ;  sages,  that  which  is  about  to  take  place. 

The  Theosophy  of  the  Sages  he  speaks  of  is  well  expressed 
in  the  assertion,  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  us." 

Inq.     Theosophy,  then,  is  not,  as  held  by  some,  a  newly  devised  scheme? 

Theo.  Only  ignorant  people  can  thus  refer  to  it.  It  is  as  old  as 
the  world,  in  its  teachings  and  ethics,  if  not  in  name,  as  it  is 
also  the  broadest  and  most  catholic  system  among  all. 

Inq.  How  comes  it,  then,  that  Theosophy  has  remained  so  unknown  to  the 
nations  of  the  Western  Hemisphere?  Why  should  it  have  been  a 
sealed  book  to  races  confessedly  the  most  cultured  and  advanced? 

Theo.  We  believe  there  were  nations  as  cultured  in  days  of  old, 
and  certainly  more  spiritually  "advanced,"  than  we  are.  But 
there  are  several  reasons  for  this  willing  ignorance.  One 
of  them  was  given  by  St.  Paul  to  the  cultured  Athenians  —  a 
loss,  for  long  centuries,  of  real  spiritual  insight,  and  even  in- 
terest, owing  to  their  too  great  devotion  to  things  of  sense 
and  their  long  slavery  to  the  dead  letter  of  dogma  and  ritual- 
ism. But  the  strongest  reason  for  it  lies  in  the  fact  that  real 
Theosophy  has  ever  been  kept  secret. 

Inq.  You  have  brought  forward  proofs  that  such  secrecy  has  existed; 
but  what  was  the  real  cause  for  it? 

TiiEo.  The  causes  for  it  were:  Firstly,  the  perversity  of  aver- 
age human  nature,  and  its  selfishness,  always  tending  to  the 
gratification  of  personal  desires  to  the  detriment  of  neighbors 
and  next  of  kin.  Such  people  could  never  be  intrusted  with 
divine  secrets.  Secondly,  their  unreliability  to  keep  the  sa- 
cred and  divine  knowledge  from  desecration.    It  is  the  latter 


14  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

which  led  to  the  perversion  of  the  most  subHme  truths  and 
symbols,  and  to  the  gradual  transformation  of  things  spirit- 
ual into  anthropomorphic,  concrete  and  gross  imagery  —  in 
other  words,  to  the  dwarfing  of  the  god-idea  and  to  idolatry. 


THEOSOPHY  IS  NOT  BUDDHISM 

Inq.  You  are  often  spoken  of  as  "  Esoteric  Buddhists."  Are  you  then 
all  followers  of  Gautama  Buddha? 

Thdo.  No  more  than  musicians  are  all  followers  of  Wagner. 
Some  of  us  are  Buddhists  by  religion ;  yet  there  are  far  more 
Hindus  and  Brahmans  than  Buddhists  among  us,  and  more 
Christian-born  Europeans  and  Americans  than  converted 
Buddhists.  The  mistake  has  arisen  through  the  confound- 
ing of  the  word  Budhism  with  Buddhism,  the  religious  system 
based  on  the  teachings  of  Gautama  the  Buddha.  Budhism, 
spelled  with  one  d  (from  hodha,  hodhi,  "  intelligence,"  "  Wis- 
dom") means  the  "  Wisdom-Religion."  And  Theosophy,  as 
already  said,  is  the  WISDOM-RELIGION. 

Inq.  What  is  the  difference  between  Buddhism,  the  religion  founded  by 
the  Prince  of  Kapilavastu,  and  Budhism,  the  "  Wisdom-Religion," 
which  you  say  is  synonymous  with  Theosophy? 

ThDo.  Just  the  same  difiference  as  there  is  between  the  later 
ritualism  and  dogmatic  theology  of  the  churches  and  sects, 
and  the  secret  teachings  of  Christ,  which  are  called  "  the  mys- 
teries of  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Buddha  means  the  "  En- 
lightened "  by  Bodha,  or  understanding,  Wisdom.  This  has 
passed  root  and  branch  into  the  esoteric  teachings  that  Gau- 
tama imparted  to  his  chosen  Arhats  only. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  IS 

Inq.  But  some  Orientalists  deny  that  Buddha  ever  taught  any  esoteric 
doctrine  at  all. 

ThEo.  They  may  as  well  deny  that  Nature  has  any  hidden  secrets 
for  the  men  of  science.  Further  on  I  will  prove  it  by  Buddha's 
conversation  with  his  disciple  Ananda.  His  esoteric  teach- 
ings were  simply  the  Gnpta-Vidyd,  or  secret  knowledge,  of 
the  ancient  Brahmans,  the  key  to  which  their  modern  success- 
ors have,  with  few  exceptions,  completely  lost.  And  this 
Vidyd  has  passed  into  what  is  now  known  as  the  inner  teach- 
ings of  the  Mahdydna  school  of  Northern  Buddhism.  Those 
who  deny  it  are  simply  ignorant  pretenders  to  Orientalism. 
I  advise  you  to  read  the  Rev.  Mr.  Edkins'  Chinese  Bud- 
dhism —  especially  the  chapters  on  the  Exoteric  and  Eso- 
teric schools  and  teachings  —  and  then  compare  the  testi- 
mony of  the  whole  ancient  world  upon  the  subject. 

Inq.  But  are  not  the  ethics  of  Theosophy  identical  with  those  taught  by 
Buddha? 

ThKo.  Certainly;  because  these  ethics  are  the  soul  of  the  Wis- 
dom-Religion, and  were  once  the  common  property  of  the  Ini- 
tiates of  all  nations.  But  Buddha  was  the  first  to  embody 
these  lofty  ethics  in  his  public  teachings,  and  to  make  them 
the  foundation  and  the  very  essence  of  his  public  system.  It 
is  herein  that  lies  the  immense  difiference  between  exoteric 
Buddhism  and  every  other  religion.  For  while  in  other  re- 
ligions ritualism  and  dogma  hold  the  first  and  most  ituportant 
place,  in  Buddhism  it  is  the  ethics  which  have  always  been 
the  most  insisted  upon.  This  accounts  for  the  resemblance, 
amounting  almost  to  identity,  between  the  ethics  of  Theo- 
sophy, and  those  of  the  religion  of  Buddha. 


16  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Inq.     Are  there  any  great  points  of  difference? 

ThEo.  One  great  distinction  between  Theosophy  and  exoteric 
Buddhism  is  that  the  latter,  represented  by  the  Southern 
Church,  entirely  denies  (a)  the  existence  of  any  Deity,  and 
{h)  any  conscious  post-mortem  life,  or  even  any  self-con- 
scious surviving  individuality  in  man.  Such,  at  least,  is  the 
teaching  of  the  Siamese  sect,  now  considered  as  the  purest 
form  of  exoteric  Buddhism.  And  it  is  so,  if  we  refer  only  to 
Buddha's  public  teachings;  the  reason  for  such  reticence  on 
his  part  I  will  give  further  on.  But  the  schools  of  the  North- 
ern Buddhist  Church,  established  in  those  countries  to  which 
his  initiated  Arhats  retired  after  the  Master's  death,  teach  all 
that  is  now  called  Theosophical  doctrines,  because  they  form 
part  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Initiates  —  thus  proving  how 
the  truth  has  been  sacrificed  to  the  dead-letter  by  the  too-zeal- 
ous orthodoxy  of  Southern  Buddhism.  But  how  much  grand- 
er and  more  noble,  more  philosophical  and  scientific,  even  in 
its  dead  letter,  is  this  teaching  than  that  of  any  other  Church 
or  religion!     Yet  Theosophy  is  not  Buddhism. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  \7 


II 

EXOTERIC  AND  ESOTERIC  THEOSOPHY 


WHAT  THE  MODERN  THEOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY  IS  NOT 

Inq.  Your  doctrines,  then,  are  not  a  revival  of  Buddhism,  nor  are  they 
entirely  copied  from  the  Neo- Platonic  Theosophy? 

ThKo.  They  are  not.  [They  are  simply  the  latest  presentment 
of  the  Wisdom-Religion  referred  to  in  the  last  chapter. 
Hence  they  embody  the  same  eternal  truths  as  have  always 
underlain  the  teachings  of  the  Wisdom-Rehgion  in  all  anti- 
quity, and  as  Jesus,  according  to  the  Church  Fathers,  endeav- 
ored to  restore.  These  truths  underlie,  not  only  Neo-Platon- 
ism  and  Buddhism,  but  every  religion  in  its  pristine  purity  as 
taught  by  the  Founder,  and  every  great  philosophy  of  the  an- 
cient world.  The  object  of  the  Theosophical  Movement  is 
therefore  the  same ;  namely,  to  revive  in  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  men  a  knowledge  of  those  eternal  verities;  for  on  them 
rests  all  the  hope  of  human  life.  The  principle  of  Universal 
Brotherhood,  based  on  a  realization  of  the  spiritual  unity  of 
mankind,  has  been  forgotten  by  the  world,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, civilization  is  threatened  with  destruction  by  the  un- 
restrained forces  of  selfishness  and  materialism.  On  this 
point  William  Q.  Judge,  the  successor  of  H.  P.  Blavatsky  in 
the  leadership  of  the  Theosophical  Society,  says : 


18  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

It  is  under  cyclic  law,  during  a  dark  period  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind, that  the  true  philosophy  disappears  for  a  time;  but  the  same  law 
causes  it  to  reappear  as  surely  as  the  sun  rises  and  the  human  mind 
is  present  to  see  it.  But  some  works  can  only  be  performed  by  the 
Master,  while  other  works  require  the  assistance  of  the  companions. 
It  is  the  Master's  work  to  preserve  the  true  philosophy,  but  the  help 
of  the  companions  is  needed  to  rediscover  and  promulgate  it.  Once 
more  the  Elder  Brothers  have  indicated  where  the  truth  —  Theosophy 
—  could  be  found,  and  the  companions  all  over  the  world  are  engaged 
in  bringing  it  forth  for  wider  currency  and  propagation.  .  .  . 

There  is  sufficient  argument  and  proof  to  show  that  a  body  of  men 
having  the  wonderful  knowledge  described  above  has  always  existed 
and  probably  exists  today.  The  older  mysteries  continually  refer  to 
them.  Ancient  Egypt  had  them  in  her  great  King-Initiates,  sons  of 
the  sun  and  friends  of  great  gods.  There  is  a  habit  of  belittling  the 
ideas  of  the  ancients  which  is  in  itself  belittling  to  the  people  of  today. 
.  .  .  The  story  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  is  about  a  member  of  one  of  the 
same  ancient  orders  appearing  among  men  at  a  descending  cycle, 
and  only  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  a  witness  upon  the  scene  for 
future  generations.  .  .  . 

Turning  to  India,  so  long  forgotten  and  ignored  by  the  lusty  and 
egotistical,  the  fighting  and  the  trading  West,  we  find  her  full  of  lore 
relating  to  these  wonderful  men.  ...  If  the  men  who  wantonly 
burned  up  vast  masses  of  historical  and  ethnological  treasures  found  by 
the  Conquerors  of  the  New  World,  more  particularly,  in  Central  and 
South  America,  could  have  known  of  and  put  their  hands  upon  the 
books  and  palm-leaf  records  of  India  before  the  protecting  shield 
of  England  was  raised  against  them,  they  would  have  destroyed  them 
all,  as  they  did  for  the  Americans,  and  as  their  predecessors  attempted 
to  do  for  the  Alexandrian  library.  Fortunately  events  worked 
otherwise. 

All  along  the  stream  of  Indian  literature  we  can  find  the  names  by 
scores  of  great  Teachers  who  were  well  known  to  the  people  and  who 
all  taught  the  same  story  —  the  great  epic  of  the  human  soul.  .  .  . 

And  if  Theosophy  —  the  teaching  of  this  great  body  of  Helpers  — 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  \g 

is,  as  said,  both  scientific  and  religious,  then  from  the  ethical  side  we 
have  still  more  proof.  A  mighty  Triad,  acting  on  and  through  ethics, 
is  that  composed  of  Buddha,  Confucius,  and  Jesus.  The  first,  a 
Hindu,  founds  a  religion  which  today  embraces  many  more  people 
than  Christianity,  teaching  centuries  before  Jesus  the  ethics  which  he 
taught  and  which  had  been  given  out  even  centuries  before  Buddha. 
Jesus,  coming  to  reform  his  people,  repeats  these  ancient  ethics,  and 
Confucius  does  the  same  thing  for  ancient  and  honorable  China. 

The  Theosophist  says  that  all  these  great  names  represent  members 
of  the  one  single  Brotherhood,  who  all  have  a  single  doctrine.  And 
the  extraordinary  characters  who  now  and  again  appear  in  western 
civilization,  such  as  St.  Germain,  Jakob  Bohme,  Cagliostro,  Para- 
celsus, Mesmer,  Count  St.  Martin,  and  Madame  H.  P.  Blavatsky,  are 
agents  for  the  doing  of  the  work  of  the  Great  Lodge  at  the  proper  time. 
It  is  true  they  are  generally  reviled  and  classed  as  impostors  —  though 
no  one  can  find  out  why  they  are,  when  they  generally  confer  benefits 
and  lay  down  propositions  or  make  discoveries  of  great  value  to  science 
after  they  have  died.  But  Jesus  himself  would  be  called  an  impostor 
today  if  he  appeared  in  some  Fifth  Avenue  theatrical  church  rebuk- 
ing the  professed  Christians.  .  .  .  Madame  Blavatsky  brought  once 
more  to  the  attention  of  the  west  the  most  important  system,  long 
known  to  the  Lodge,  respecting  man,  his  nature  and  destiny.  But 
all  are  alike  called  impostors  by  a  people  who  have  no  original  phil- 
osophy of  their  own,  and  whose  mendicant  and  criminal  classes  exceed 
in  misery  and  in  number  those  of  any  civilization  on  the  earth.  .  .  . 

I  repeat  then,  that  though  the  true  doctrine  disappeared  for  a  time 
from  among  men,  it  is  bound  to  reappear,  because  first  it  is  impacted 
in  the  imperishable  center  of  man's  nature;  and  secondly,  the  Lodge 
forever  preserves  it.] 

Inq.  Which  system  do  you  prefer  to  follow  in  that  case,  besides  Bud- 
dhistic ethics? 

TiiEO.  None,  and  all.  We  hold  to  no  religion  and  to  no  philos- 
ophy in  particular;  we  cull  the  good  we  find  in  each.  But 
here,  again,  it  must  be  stated  that,  like  all  other  ancient  sys- 


.  .         Ol^   THE  ^ 

university} 

OF  /I 


20  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

terns,  Theosophy  is  divided  into  Exoteric  and  Bsoteric  sec- 
tions. 

Inq.     What  is  the  difference? 

ThDo.  The  members  of  the  Theosophical  Society  at  large  are 
free  to  profess  whatever  reHgion  or  philosophy  they  like  — 
or  none,  if  they  so  prefer  —  provided  they  are  in  sympathy 
with,  and  ready  to  carry  out  one  or  more  of,  the  three  objects 
of  the  Association.  The  Society  is  a  philanthropic  and  scien- 
tific body  for  the  propagation  of  the  idea  of  brotherhood  on 
practical  instead  of  theoretical  lines.  The  Fellows  may  be 
of  any  religion  or  creed  —  it  does  not  matter ;  but  every  mem- 
ber must  subscribe  to  the  principal  object  of  the  Society  ^  and 
accept  its  Constitution.  He  may  or  may  not  be  so  situated 
as  to  help  carry  out  the  subsidiary  purpose,  but  it  is  expected 
he  will  do  his  utmost  in  endeavoring  to  carry  out  its  principal 
object.  Otherwise  he  has  no  reason  for  becoming  a  Fellow. 
Such  are  the  majority  of  the  exoteric  Society,  composed  of 
''attached"  and  ''unattached"  members.^  These  may  or  may 
not  become  Theosophists  de  facto.  Members  they  are,  by 
virtue  of  having  joined  the  Society;  but  the  latter  can  not 

5.  The  full  title  of  which  is  now  The  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical 

Society.  "  The  principal  purpose  of  this  Organization  is  to  teach  brotherhood, 
demonstrate  that  it  is  a  fact  in  nature  and  make  it  a  living  power  in  the  life 
of  humanity.  The  subsidiary  purpose  of  this  Organization  is  to  study  ancient 
and  modern  religion,  science,  philosophy  and  art;  to  investigate  the  laws  of 
nature  and  the  divine  powers  in  man." 

6.  An   "attached"   member   means   one   who   has   been   admitted   to   some   particular 

Center  of  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical  Society.  An  "un- 
attached" member,  or  "member-at-large,"  is  one  who  is  not  connected  with  any 
Center,  but  who  by  correspondence  keeps  in  touch  with  the  International  Head- 
quarters at  Point  Loma,  California. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  21 

make  a  Theosophist  of  one  who  has  no  sense  for  the  divine 
fitness  of  things,  or  of  him  who  understands  Thcosophy  in 
his  own  —  if  the  expression  may  be  used  —  sectarian  and 
egotistic  way.  "  Handsome  is  as  handsome  does  "  could  be 
paraphrased  in  this  case,  and  made  to  run,  "  Theosophist  is 
who  Theosophy  does." 


THEOSOPHISTS  AND  MEMBERS  OP  THE  THEOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY 

Inq.  This  applies  to  lay  members,  as  I  understand.  And  what  of  those 
who  pursue  the  esoteric  study  of  Theosophy;  are  they  the  real  Theo- 
sophists  ? 

Theo.  Not  necessarily,  until  they  have  proven  themselves  to  be 
such.  They  have  entered  the  inner  group  and  pledged  them- 
selves to  carry  out,  as  strictly  as  they  can,  the  rules  of  the  oc- 
cult body.  This  is  a  difficult  undertaking,  as  the  foremost 
rule  of  all  is  the  entire  renunciation  of  one's  personality  — 
i.  e.,  a  pledged  member  has  to  become  a  thorough  altruist, 
never  to  think  of  himself,  and  to  forget  his  own  vanity  and 
pride  in  the  thought  of  the  good  of  his  fellow-creatures,  be- 
sides that  of  his  fellow-brothers  in  the  esoteric  circle.  He 
has  to  live,  if  the  esoteric  instructions  shall  profit  him,  a  life 
of  abstinence  in  everything,  of  self-denial  and  strict  morality, 
doing  his  duty  by  all  men.  The  few  real  Theosophists  in  the 
Theosophical  Society  are  among  these  members.  This  does 
not  imply  that  outside  of  the  Theosophical  Society  and  the 
inner  circle  there  are  no  Theosophists;  for  there  are,  and 
more  than  people  know  of  —  certainly  far  more  than  are 
found  among  the  lay  members  of  the  Theosophical  Society. 


22  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Inq.  Then  what  is  the  good  of  joining  the  so-called  Theosophical  Society 
in  that  case?     Where  is  the  incentive? 

The;o.  None,  except  the  advantage  of  getting  esoteric  instruc- 
tions, the  genuine  doctrines  of  the  Wisdom-Religion,  and, 
if  the  real  program  is  carried  out,  deriving  much  help  from 
mutual  aid  and  sympathy.  Union  is  strength  and  harmony, 
and  well-regulated  simultaneous  efforts  produce  wonders. 
This  has  been  the  secret  of  all  associations  and  communities 
since  mankind  existed. 

Inq.  But  why  could  not  a  man  of  well-balanced  mind  and  singleness  of 
purpose,  one,  say,  of  indomitable  energy  and  perseverance,  become  an 
Occultist,  and  even  an  Adept,  if  he  works  alone? 

ThKo.  He  may ;  but  there  are  ten  thousand  chances  against  one 
that  he  will  fail.  For  one  reason  out  of  many  others,  no 
books  on  Occultism  or  Theurgy  exist  in  our  day  which  give 
out  the  secrets  of  Alchemy  or  mediaeval  Theosophy  in  plain 
language.  All  are  symbolical  or  in  parables ;  and  as  the  key 
to  these  has  been  lost  for  ages  in  the  West,  how  can  a  man 
learn  the  correct  meaning  of  what  he  is  reading  and  studying? 
Therein  lies  the  greatest  danger  —  one  that  leads  to  uncon- 
scious hlack  magic  or  the  most  helpless  mediumship.  He  who 
has  not  an  Initiate  for  a  master  had  better  leave  the  danger- 
ous study  alone.  Look  around  you  and  observe.  While  two- 
thirds  of  civilized  society  ridicule  the  mere  notion  that  there 
is  anything  in  Theosophy,  Occultism,  Spiritualism,  or  in  the 
Kabalah,  the  other  third  is  composed  of  the  most  heterogen- 
eous and  opposite  elements.  Some  believe  in  the  mystical 
and  even  in  the  supernatural  ( ! ) ,  but  each  believes  in  his  own 
way.  Others  will  rush  single-handed  into  the  study  of  the 
Kabalah,  Psychism,  Mesmerism,  Spiritualism,  or  some  form 


THB    KHY    TO    THnoSOPHY  23 

or  another  of  Mysticism.  Result :  no  two  men  think  ahke,  no 
two  are  agreed  upon  any  fundamental  occult  principles, 
though  many  are  those  who  claim  for  themselves  the  ultima 
Thule  of  knowledge,  and  would  make  outsiders  believe  that 
they  are  full-blown  adepts.  Not  only  is  there  no  scientific 
and  accurate  knowledge  of  Occultism  accessible  in  the  West 
—  not  even  of  true  astrology,  the  only  branch  of  Occultism 
which,  in  its  exoteric  teachings,  has  definite  laws  and  a  defin- 
ite system  —  but  no  one  has  any  idea  of  what  real  Occultism 
means.  Some  limit  ancient  wisdom  to  the  Kabalah  and  the 
Jewish  Zohar,  which  each  interprets  in  his  own  way  accord- 
ing to  the  dead  letter  of  the  rabbinical  methods.  Others  re- 
gard Swedenborg  or  Bohme  as  the  ultimate  expressions  of 
the  highest  wisdom;  while  others  again  see  in  mesmerism  the 
great  secret  of  ancient  magic.  One  and  all  of  those  who  put 
their  theory  into  practice  are  rapidly  drifting,  through  ignor- 
ance, into  black  magic.  Happy  are  those  who  escape  from 
it,  as  they  have  neither  test  nor  criterion  by  which  they  can 
distinguish  between  the  true  and  the  false. 

Inq.  Are  we  to  understand  that  the  inner  group  of  tlie  Theosophical  So- 
ciety claims  to  learn  what  it  does  from  real  initiates  or  masters  of 
esoteric  wisdom? 

Theo.  Not  directly.  The  personal  presence  of  such  masters 
is  not  required.  Suf^ce  it  if  they  give  instructions  to  some  of 
those  who  have  studied  under  their  guidance  for  years  and 
devoted  their  whole  lives  to  their  service.  Then,  in  turn, 
these  can  give  out  the  knowledge  so  imparted  to  others  who 
had  no  such  opportunity.  A  portion  of  the  true  sciences  is 
better  than  a  mass  of  undigested  and  misunderstood  learning. 
An  ounce  of  gold  is  worth  a  ton  of  dust. 


24  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Inq.  But  how  is  one  to  know  whether  the  ounce  is  real  gold  or  only  a 
counterfeit? 

Theo.  a  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit,  a  system  by  its  results. 
When  our  opponents  are  able  to  prove  to  us  that  any  solitary 
student  of  Occultism  throughout  the  ages  has  become  a  saint- 
ly adept  like  Ammonius  Saccas,  or  even  a  Plotinus,  or  a  The- 
urgist  like  lamblichus,  or  achieved  feats  such  as  are  claimed 
to  have  been  done  by  St.  Germain,  without  any  master  to 
guide  him,  and  all  this  without  being  a  medium,  a  self-deluded 
psychic,  or  a  charlatan  —  then  we  shall  confess  ourselves  mis- 
taken. But  till  then,  Theosophists  prefer  to  follow  the  proven 
natural  law  of  the  tradition  of  the  Sacred  Science.  There 
are  mystics  who  have  made  great  discoveries  in  chemistry 
and  physical  sciences,  almost  bordering  on  alchemy  and  Oc- 
cultism ;  others  who,  by  the  sole  aid  of  their  genius,  have  re- 
discovered portions,  if  not  the  whole,  of  the  lost  alphabets 
of  the  "  Mystery  language,"  and  are  therefore  able  to  read 
correctly  Hebrew  scrolls;  others  still  who,  being  seers,  have 
caught  wonderful  glimpses  of  the  hidden  secrets  of  Nature. 
But  all  these  are  specialists.  One  is  a  theoretical  inventor, 
another  a  Hebrew,  i.  e.,  a  sectarian  Kabalist,  a  third  a  Swe- 
denborg  of  modern  times,  denying  all  and  everything  outside 
of  his  own  particular  science  or  religion.  Not  one  of  them 
can  boast  of  having  produced  a  universal  or  even  a  national 
benefit  thereby,  or  a  benefit  even  to  himself.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  healers  —  of  that  class  which  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  would  call  quacks  —  none 
have  helped  with  their  science  Humanity,  or  even  a  number 
of  men  of  the  same  community.  Where  are  the  Chaldees  of 
old  —  those  who  wrought  marvelous  cures,  ''  not  by  charms. 


THE    KEY    TO    T  HBO  SOPHY  25 

but  by  simples  "  ?  Where  is  an  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  who 
healed  the  sick  and  raised  the  dead  under  any  climate  and 
circumstances?  We  know  some  specialists  of  the  former 
class  even  in  Europe,  but  of  the  latter  only  in  Asia,  where  the 
secret  of  the  Yogi  —  ''  to  live  in  death  "  —  is  still  preserved. 

Inq.     Is  the  production  of  such  healing  adepts  the  aim  of  Theosophy? 

ThEO.  Its  aims  are  several;  but  the  most  important  are  those 
which  are  likely  to  lead  to  the  relief  of  human  suffering  un- 
der any  or  every  form,  moral  as  well  as  physical.  And  we 
believe  the  former  to  be  far  more  important  than  the  latter. 
Theosophy  has  to  inculcate  ethics ;  it  has  to  purify  the  soul  if 
it  would  relieve  the  physical  body,  whose  ailments,  save  in 
cases  of  accidents,  are  all  hereditary.  It  is  not  by  studying 
Occultism  for  selfish  ends  —  for  the  gratification  of  one's 
personal  ambition,  pride  or  vanity  —  that  one  can  ever  reach 
the  true  goal :  that  of  helping  suffering  mankind.  Nor  is  it 
by  studying  one  single  branch  of  the  Esoteric  Philosophy 
that  a  man  becomes  an  Occultist,  but  by  studying,  if  not 
mastering,  them  all. 

Inq.  Is  help,  then,  to  reach  this  most  important  aim  given  only  to  those 
who  study  the  esoteric  sciences? 

Theo.  Not  at  all.  Every  lay  member  is  entitled  to  general  in- 
struction if  he  only  wants  it;  but  few  are  willing  to  become 
what  is  called  "  working  members,"  and  most  prefer  to  re- 
main the  drones  of  Theosophy.  Let  it  be  understood  that  pri- 
vate research  is  encouraged  in  the  Theosophical  Society,  pro- 
vided it  does  not  infringe  the  limit  which  separates  the"  exo- 
teric from  the  esoteric,  the  hVuid  from  the  conscious  magic. 


26  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

THE  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEOSOPHY  AND  OCCULTISM 

Inq.     You  speak  of  Theosophy  and  Occultism;  are  they  identical? 

ThEo.  By  no  means.  A  man  may  be  a  very  good  Theosophist 
indeed,  whether  in  or  outside  of  the  Society,  without  being 
in  any  way  an  Occultist.  But  no  one  can  be  a  true  Occultist 
without  being  a  real  Theosophist;  otherwise  he  is  simply  a 
black  magician,  whether  conscious  or  unconscious. 

Inq.     What  do  you  mean? 

The:o.  I  have  said  already  that  a  true  Theosophist  must  put  in 
practice  the  loftiest  moral  ideal;  must  strive  to  realize  his 
unity  with  the  whole  of  humanity,  and  work  ceaselessly  for 
others.  Now,  if  an  Occultist  does  not  do  all  this,  he  must 
act  selfishly  for  his  own  personal  benefit;  and  if  he  has  ac- 
quired more  practical  power  than  other  ordinary  men,  he  be- 
comes forthwith  a  far  more  dangerous  enemy  to  the  world 
and  those  around  him  than  the  average  mortal.     This  is  clear. 

Inq.  Then  is  an  Occultist  simply  a  man  who  possesses  more  power  than 
other  people? 

ThEo.  Far  more  —  if  he  is  a  practical  and  really  learned  Oc- 
cultist, and  not  one  only  in  name.  Occult  sciences  are  not,  as 
described  in  encyclopaedias,  "  those  imaginary  sciences  of  the 
middle  ages  which  related  to  the  supposed  action  or  influence 
of  occult  qualities  or  supernatural  powers,  as  alchemy,  magic, 
necromancy  and  astrology,"  for  they  are  real,  actual  and  very 
dangerous  sciences.  They  teach  the  secret  potency  of  things 
in  Nature,  developing  and  cultivating  the  hidden  powers  "  lat- 
ent in  man,"  thus  giving  him  tremendous  advantages  over 
more  ignorant  mortals.     Hypnotism  —  now  become  so  com- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  27 

mon,  and  a  subject  of  serious  scientific  inquiry  —  is  a  good 
instance  in  point.  Hypnotic  power  has  been  discovered  al- 
most by  accident,  the  way  to  it  having  been  prepared  by  Mes- 
merism. And  now  an  able  hypnotizer  can  do  almost  any- 
thing with  it,  from  forcing  a  man  unconsciously  to  himself 
to  play  the  fool,  to  making  him  commit  a  crime  —  often  by 
proxy  for  the  hypnotizer,  and  for  the  latter' s  benefit.  Is  not 
this  a  terrible  power  if  left  in  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  per- 
sons? And  please  to  remember  that  this  is  only  one  of  the 
minor  branches  of  Occultism. 

Inq.  But  are  not  all  these  Occult  sciences,  magic  and  sorcery  considered 
by  the  most  cultured  and  learned  people  as  relics  of  ancient  ignorance 
and  superstition? 

ThEo.  Let  me  remind  you  that  this  remark  of  yours  cuts  both 
ways.  The  *'  most  cultured  and  learned  "  among  you  regard 
also  Christianity  and  every  other  religion  as  a  relic  of  ignor- 
ance and  superstition.  People  begin  to  believe  now,  at  any 
rate,  in  hypnotism,  and  some  —  even  of  the  most  cultured  — 
in  Theosophy  and  phenomena.  But  who  among  them,  ex- 
cept preachers  and  blind  fanatics,  will  confess  to  a  belief  in 
Biblical  miracles?  And  this  is  where  the  point  of  difference 
comes  in.  There  are  very  good  and  pure  Theosophists  who 
may  believe  in  the  supernatural  —  divine  miracles  included 
—  but  no  Occultist  will  do  so.  For  an  Occultist  practises  sci- 
entific Theosophy,  based  on  accurate  knowledge  of  Nature's 
secret  workings;  but  a  Theosophist,  practising  the  powers 
called  abnormal,  minus  the  light  of  Occultism,  will  simply 
tend  toward  a  dangerous  form  of  mediumship;  because,  al- 
though holding  to  Theosophy  and  its  highest  conceivable  code 
of  ethics,  he  practises  it  in  the  dark,  on  sincere  but  blind  faith. 


28  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Any  one,  Theosophist  or  Spiritualist,  who  attempts  to  culti- 
vate one  of  the  branches  of  Occult  Science,  —  c.  g.  Hypnot- 
ism, Mesmerism  or  even  the  secrets  of  producing  physical 
phenomena,  etc.  —  without  the  knowledge  of  the  philosophic 
rationale  of  those  powers,  is  like  a  rudderless  boat  launched 
on  a  stormy  ocean. 


THE  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEOSOPHY  AND  SPIRITUALISM 

Inq.     But  do  you  not  believe  in  Spiritualism? 

ThEO.  If  by  "Spiritualism"  you  mean  the  explanation  which 
Spiritualists  give  of  some  abnormal  phenomena,  then  decid- 
edly zve  do  not.  They  maintain  that  these  manifestations  are 
all  produced  by  the  "spirits"  of  departed  mortals  —  gener- 
ally their  relatives  —  who  return  to  earth,  they  say,  to  com- 
municate with  those  they  have  loved  or  to  whom  they  are  at- 
tached. We  deny  this  point-blank.  We  assert  that  the  spir- 
its of  the  dead  can  not  return  to  earth,  save  in  rare  and 
exceptional  cases,  of  which  I  may  speak  later;  nor  do  they 
communicate  with  men  except  by  entirely  snhjective  means. 
That  which  appears  objectively  is  only  the  phantom  of  the 
ex-physical  man.  But  in  psychic  and,  so  to  say,  spiritual 
Spiritualism  we  do  believe  most  decidedly. 

Inq.     Do  you  reject  the  phenomena  also? 

Theo.     Assuredly  not  —  save  cases  of  conscious  fraud. 

Inq.     How  do  you  account  for  them  then  ? 

ThEO.  In  many  ways.  The  causes  of  such  manifestations  are  by 
no  means  so  simple  as  the  Spiritualists  would  like  to  believe. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  29 

Foremost  of  all,  the  dens  ex  machind  of  the  so-called  "mater- 
ializations" is  usually  the  astral  body  or  "double"  of  the  med- 
ium or  of  some  one  present.  This  astral  body  is  also  the 
producer  or  operating  force  in  the  manifestations  of  slate- 
writing,  "  Davenport  "-like  manifestations,  and  so  on. 

Ino.     You  say  "usually";  then  what  is  it  that  produces  the  rest? 

Thko.  That  depends  on  the  nature  of  the  manifestations.  Some- 
times the  astral  remains,  the  kdmalokic  "shells"  of  the  van- 
ished personalities  that  were;  at  other  times,  Elementals. 
"  Spirit  "  is  a  word  of  manifold  and  wide  significance.  I 
really  do  not  know  what  Spiritualists  mean  by  the  term ;  but 
what  we  understand  them  to  claim  is  that  the  physical  phen- 
omena are  produced  by  the  reincarnating  Ego,  the  Spiritual 
and  immortal  individuality.  And  this  hypothesis  we  entirely 
reject.  The  Conscious  Individuality  of  the  disembodied  can 
not  materialize,  nor  can  it  return  from  its  own  mental  Deva- 
chanic  sphere  to  the  plane  of  terrestrial  objectivity. 

Inq.  But  many  of  the  communications  received  from  the  "spirits"  show 
not  only  intelligence,  but  a  knowledge  of  facts  not  known  to  the  me- 
dium, and  sometimes  even  not  consciously  present  to  the  mind  of  the 
investigator  or  any  of  those  who  compose  the  audience. 

Theo.  This  does  not  necessarily  prove  that  the  intelligence  and 
knowledge  you  speak  of  belong  to  spirits,  or  emanate  from 
disembodied  souls.  Somnambulists  have  been  known  to  com- 
pose music  and  poetry  and  to  solve  mathematical  problems 
while  in  their  trance  state,  without  ever  having  learned  music 
or  mathematics.  Others  answered  intelligently  questions  put 
to  them,  and  even,  in  several  cases,  spoke  languages,  such  as 
Hebrew  and  Latin,  of  which  they  were  entirely  ignorant  when 


30  THE    KEY    TO    THHOSOPHY 

awake  —  all  this  in  a  state  of  profound  sleep.     Will  you, 
then,  maintain  that  this  was  caused  by  "spirits"  ? 

Inq.     But  how  would  you  explain  it? 

Theo.  We  assert  that  the  divine  spark  in  man  being  one  and 
identical  in  its  essence  with  the  Universal  Spirit,  our  '*  spir- 
itual Self  "  is  practically  omniscient,  but  that  it  cannot  mani- 
fest its  knowledge,  owing  to  the  impediments  of  matter.  Now 
the  more  these  impediments  are  removed  —  in  other  words, 
the  more  the  physical  body  is  paralyzed  as  to  its  own  inde- 
pendent activity  and  consciousness,  as  in  deep  sleep  or  deep 
trance,  or,  again,  in  illness  —  the  more  fully  can  the  inner 
Self  manifest  on  this  plane.  This  is  our  explanation  of  those 
truly  wonderful  phenomena  of  a  higher  order  in  which  un- 
deniable intelligence  and  knowledge  are  exhibited.  As  to  the 
lower  order  of  manifestations  —  such  as  physical  phenomena 
and  the  platitudes  and  common  talk  of  the  general  "spirit"  — 
to  explain  even  the  most  important  of  the  teachings  we  hold 
upon  the  subject  would  take  up  more  space  and  time  than  can 
be  allotted  to  it  at  present.  We  have  no  desire  to  interfere 
with  the  belief  of  the  Spiritualists  any  more  than  with  any 
other  belief.  The  onus  probandi  must  fall  on  the  believers  in 
"spirits."  And  at  the  present  moment,  while  still  convinced 
that  the  higher  kind  of  manifestations  occur  through  disem- 
bodied souls,  the  leaders  of  the  Spiritualists,  and  the  most 
learned  and  intelligent  among  them,  are  the  first  to  confess 
that  not  all  the  phenomena  are  produced  by  spirits.  Gradu- 
ally they  will  come  to  recognize  the  whole  truth;  but  mean- 
while we  have  no  right  nor  desire  to  proselytize  them  to  our 
views  —  the  less  so,  as  in  the  cases  of  purely  psychic  and 
spiritual  manifestations  we  believe  in  the  intercommunica- 


THE    KBY    TO    THHOSOPHY  31 

tion  of  the  spirit  of  the  Hving  man  with  that  of  disembodied 
personalities/ 
Inq.     This  means  that  you  reject  the  philosophy  of  Spiritualism  in  toto? 

ThEo.  If  by  "philosophy"  you  mean  its  crude  theories,  we  do. 
But  it  has  no  philosophy,  in  truth.  The  best,  the  most  intel- 
lectual and  earnest  defenders  of  Spiritualism  say  so.  Their 
fundamental  and  only  unimpeachable  truth  —  namely,  that 
phenomena  occur  through  mediums  controlled  by  invisible 
forces  and  intelligences  —  no  one,  except  a  blind  materialist 
of  the  Huxley  ''  big-toe  "  school,  will  or  can  deny.  With  re- 
gard to  their  philosophy,  however,  let  me  quote  to  you  what 
the  able  editor  of  Light  —  than  whom  the  Spiritualists  will 
find  no  wiser  or  more  devoted  champion  —  says  of  them  and 
their  philosophy.  This  is  what  "  M.  A.  Oxon.,"  one  of  the 
very  few  philosophical  Spiritualists,  writes,  with  respect  to 
their  lack  of  organization,  and  blind  bigotry. 

7.  We  say  that  in  such  cases  it  is  not  the  spirits  of  the  dead  who  descend  on  earth, 
but  the  spirits  of  the  living  that  ascend  to  the  pure  Spiritual  Souls.  In  truth 
there  is  neither  ascending  nor  descending,  but  a  change  of  state  or  condition  for 
the  medium.  The  body  of  the  latter  becoming  paralyzed,  or  "entranced,"  the 
spiritual  Ego  is  free  from  its  trammels,  and  finds  itself  on  the  same  plane  of 
consciousness  with  the  disembodied  spirits.  Hence,  if  there  is  any  spiritual  at- 
traction between  the  two  they  can  communicate,  as  often  occurs  in  dreams. 
The  difference  between  a  mediumistic  and  a  non-sensitive  nature  is  this:  the 
liberated  spirit  of  a  medium  has  the  opportunity  and  facility  of  influencing  the 
passive  organs  of  its  entranced  physical  body,  to  make  them  act,  speak  and  write 
at  its  will.  The  Eco  can  make  it  repeat,  echo-like,  and  in  the  human  language, 
the  thoughts  and  ideas  of  the  disembodied  entity,  as  well  as  its  own.  But  the 
non-receptive  or  non-sensitive  organism  of  one  who  is  very  positive  can  not  be 
so  influenced.  Hence,  although  there  is  hardly  a  human  being  whose  Ego  does 
not  hold  free  intercourse,  during  the  sleep  of  his  body,  with  those  whom  it  loved 
and  lost,  yet,  on  account  of  the  positiveness  and  non-receptivity  of  its  physical 
envelope  and  brain,  no  recollection,  or  a  very  dim,  dream-like  remembrance, 
lingers  in  the  memory  of  the  person  once  awake. 


32  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

It  is  worth  while  to  look  steadily  at  this  point,  for  it  is  of  vital  mo- 
ment. We  have  an  experience  and  a  knowledge  beside  which  all  other 
knowledge  is  comparatively  insignificant.  The  ordinary  Spiritualist 
waxes  wroth  if  anyone  ventures  to  impugn  his  assured  knowledge  of 
the  future  and  his  absolute  certainty  of  the  life  to  come.  Where  other 
men  have  stretched  forth  feeble  hands  groping  into  the  dark  future,  he 
walks  boldly  as  one  who  has  a  chart  and  knows  his  way.  Where  other 
men  have  stopped  short  at  a  pious  aspiration,  or  have  been  content  with 
a  hereditary  faith,  it  is  his  boast  that  he  knows  what  they  only  believe, 
and  that  out  of  his  rich  stores  he  can  supplement  the  fading  faiths  built 
only  upon  hope.  He  is  magnificent  in  his  dealings  with  man's  most 
cherished  expectations.  "  You  hope,"  he  seems  to  say,  "for  that  which 
I  can  demonstrate.  You  have  accepted  a  traditional  belief  in  what  I 
can  experimentally  prove  according  to  the  strictest  scientific  method. 
The  old  beliefs  are  fading;  come  out  from  them  and  be  separate. 
They  contain  as  much  falsehood  as  truth.  Only  by  building  on  a  sure 
foundation  of  demonstrated  fact  can  your  superstructure  be  stable.  All 
round  you  old  faiths  are  toppling.     Avoid  the  crash  and  get  you  out." 

When  one  comes  to  deal  with  this  magnificent  person  in  a  practical 
way,  what  is  the  result?  Very  curious  and  very  disappointing.  He 
is  so  sure  of  his  ground  that  he  takes  no  trouble  to  ascertain  the  inter- 
pretation which  others  put  upon  his  facts.  The  wisdom  of  the  ages 
has  concerned  itself  with  the  explanation  of  what  he  rightly  regards  as 
proven;  but  he  does  not  turn  a  passing  glance  on  its  researches.  He 
does  not  even  agree  altogether  with  his  brother  Spiritualist.  It  is  the 
story  over  again  of  the  old  Scotch  body  who,  together  with  her  hus- 
band, formed  a  "kirk."  They  had  exclusive  keys  to  heaven,  or  rather 
she  had,  for  she  was  "na  certain  aboot  Jamie."  So  the  infinitely 
divided,  and  subdivided  and  re-subdivided  sects  of  Spiritualists  shake 
their  heads,  and  are  "na  certain  aboot"  one  another.  Again,  the  col- 
lective experience  of  mankind  is  solid  and  unvarying  on  this  point 
that  union  is  strength  and  disunion  a  source  of  weakness  and  failure. 
Shoulder  to  shoulder,  drilled  and  disciplined,  a  rabble  becomes  an 
army,  each  man  a  match  for  a  hundred  of  the  untrained  men  that  may 
be  brought  against  it.     Organization  in  every  department  of  man's 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  33 

work  means  success,  saving  of  time  and  labor,  profit  and  development. 
Want  of  method,  want  of  plan,  haphazard  work,  fitful  energy,  undis- 
ciplined effort  —  these  mean  bungling  failure.  The  voice  of  humanity 
attests  the  truth.  Does  the  Spiritualist  accept  the  verdict  and  act  on 
the  conclusion?  Verily,  no.  He  refuses  to  organize.  He  is  a  law 
unto  himself,  and  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  his  neighbors.^ 

Inq.  I  was  told  that  the  Theosophical  Society  was  originally  founded  to 
crush  Spiritualism  and  belief  in  the  survival  of  the  individuality  in 
man. 

Theo.  You  are  misinformed.  Our  beliefs  are  all  founded  on 
that  immortal  individuality.  But  then,  like  so  many  others, 
you  confuse  personality  with  individuality.  Your  Western 
psychologists  do  not  seem  to  have  established  any  clear  dis- 
tinction between  the  two.  Yet  it  is  precisely  that  difference 
which  gives  the  key-note  to  the  understanding  of  Eastern 
philosophy,  and  which  lies  at  the  root  of  the  divergence  be- 
tween the  Theosophical  and  Spiritualistic  teachings.  And 
though  it  may  draw  upon  us  still  more  the  hostility  of  some 
Spiritualists,  yet  I  must  state  here  that  it  is  Theosophy  which 
is  the  true  and  unalloyed  spiritualism,  while  the  modern 
scheme  of  that  name  is,  as  now  practised  by  the  masses,  sim- 
ply transcendental  materialism. 

Inq.     Please  explain  your  idea  more  clearly. 

Theo.  What  I  mean  is  that  though  our  teachings  insist  upon 
the  identity  of  spirit  and  matter,  and  though  we  say  that  spirit 
is  potential  matter,  and  matter  simply  crystallized  spirit,  just 
as  ice  is  solidified  steam,  yet,  since  the  original  and  eternal 
condition  of  the  All  is  not  spirit,  but  m^^a-spirit,  so  to  speak 

8.    Light,  June  22,  1889. 


34  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

—  visible  and  solid  matter  being  simply  its  periodical  mani- 
festation —  we  maintain  that  the  term  ''spirit"  can  only  be 
applied  to  the  true  individuality. 

Inq.  But  what  is  the  distinction  between  this  "  true  individuality  "  and  the 
"  I  "  or  "  Ego  "  of  which  we  are  all  conscious? 

Theo.  Before  I  can  answer  you,  we  must  agree  upon  what  you 
mean  by  "  I  "  or  "  Ego."  We  distinguish  between  the  simple 
fact  of  self-consciousness  —  the  simple  feeling  that  "  I  am  I  " 

—  and  the  complex  thought  that  "  I  am  Mr.  Smith  or  Mrs. 
Brown."  Believing  as  we  do  in  a  series  of  births  for  the 
same  Ego,  or  reincarnation,  this  distinction  is  the  funda- 
mental pivot  of  the  whole  idea.  You  see  "  Mr.  Smith  "  really 
means  a  long  series  of  daily  experiences  strung  together  by 
the  thread  of  memory,  and  forming  what  "  Mr.  Smith  "  calls 
"  himself."  But  none  of  these  ''experiences"  are  really  the 
"  I  "  or  the  Ego,  nor  do  they  give  "  Mr.  Smith  "  the  feeling 
that  he  is  himself,  for  he  forgets  the  greater  part  of  his  daily 
experiences,  and  they  produce  the  feeling  of  Bgoity  in  him 
only  while  they  last.  We  Theosophists,  therefore,  distin- 
guish between  this  bundle  of  "experiences,"  which  we  call  the 
false  (because  so  finite  and  evanescent)  personality,  and  that 
element  in  man  to  which  the  feeling  of  "  I  am  I  "  is  due. 
It  is  this  "  I  am  I "  which  we  call  the  true  individuality ;  and 
we  say  that  this  "  Ego  "  or  individuality,  like  an  actor,  plays 
many  parts  on  the  stage  of  life.^  Let  us  call  every  new  life 
on  earth  of  the  same  Ego  a  night  on  the  stage  of  a  theatre. 
One  night  the  actor,  or  "  Ego,"  appears  as  Macbeth,  the  next 
as  Shylock,  the  third  as  Romeo,  the  fourth  as  Hamlet  or  King 

9.    See  further,  Section  VIII,  "  On  Individuality  and  Personality." 


THE    KEY    TO    T  HBO  SOPHY  35 

Lear,  and  so  on,  until  he  has  run  through  the  whole  cycle 
of  incarnations.  The  Ego  begins  his  life-pilgrimage  as  a 
sprite,  an  Ariel,  or  a  Puck;  he  plays  the  part  of  a  super, 
is  a  soldier,  a  servant,  one  of  the  chorus ;  rises  then  to  "speak- 
ing parts,"  playing  leading  roles,  interspersed  with  insigni- 
ficant parts,  till  he  finally  retires  from  the  stage  as  Prospero, 
the  magician. 

Inq.  I  understand.  You  say  then,  that  this  true  Ego  can  not  return  to 
earth  after  death.  But  surely  the  actor  is  at  Uberty,  if  he  has  pre- 
served the  sense  of  his  individuality,  to  return  if  he  likes  to  the  scene 
of  his  former  actions? 

ThEo.  We  say  not ;  simply  because  such  a  return  to  earth  would 
be  incompatible  with  any  state  of  unalloyed  bliss  after  death, 
as  I  am  prepared  to  prove.  We  say  that  man  suffers  so 
much  unmerited  misery  during  his  life,  through  the  fault  of 
others  with  whom  he  is  associated,  or  because  of  his  environ- 
ment, that  he  is  surely  entitled  to  perfect  rest  and  quiet,  if  not 
bliss,  before  taking  up  again  the  burden  of  life.  However, 
we  can  discuss  this  in  detail  later. 


WHY  IS   THEOSOPHY  ACCEPTED? 

Inq.  I  understand  to  a  certain  extent;  but  I  see  that  your  teachings  are 
far  more  complicated  and  metaphysical  than  either  Spiritualism  or 
current  religious  thought.  Can  you  tell  me,  then,  what  has  caused 
this  system  of  Theosophy  which  you  support  to  arouse  so  much  inter- 
est and  so  much  animosity  at  the  same  time  ? 

Theo.  There  are  several  reasons  for  it,  I  believe.  Among  other 
causes  that  may  be  mentioned  are:  (1)  The  great  reaction 
from  the  crassly  materialistic  theories  now  prevalent  among 


36  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

scientific  teachers.  (2)  General  dissatisfaction  with  the  arti- 
ficial theology  of  the  various  Christian  Churches  and  the 
number  of  daily  increasing  and  conflicting  sects.  (3)  An 
ever-growing  perception  of  the  fact  that  the  creeds  which  are 
so  obviously  self-  and  mutually  contradictory  can  not  he  true, 
and  that  claims  which  are  unverified  can  not  he  real.  This 
natural  distrust  of  conventional  religions  is  only  strength- 
ened by  their  complete  failure  to  preserve  morals  and  to 
purify  society  and  the  masses.  (4)  A  conviction  on  the  part 
of  many,  and  knowledge  by  a  few,  that  there  must  be  some- 
where a  philosophical  and  religious  system  which  shall  be 
scientific  and  not  merely  speculative.  (5)  Finally,  perhaps, 
a  belief  that  such  a  system  must  be  sought  for  in  teachings 
far  antedating  any  modern  faith. 

Inq.     But  how  did  this  system  come  to  be  put  forward  just  now? 

Theo.  Just  because  the  time  was  found  to  be  ripe  —  a  fact 
shown  by  the  determined  effort  of  so  many  earnest  students  to 
reach  the  truth,  at  whatever  cost  and  wherever  it  may  be  con- 
cealed. Seeing  this,  its  custodians  permitted  that  some  por- 
tions at  least  of  that  truth  should  be  proclaimed.  Had  the 
formation  of  the  Theosophical  Society  been  postponed  a  few 
years  longer,  one  half  of  the  civilized  nations  would  have 
become  by  this  time  rank  materialists,  and  the  other  half 
anthropomorphists  and  phenomenalists. 

Inq.     Are  we  to  regard  Theosophy  in  any  way  as  a  revelation? 

Theo.  In  no  way  whatever,  not  even  in  the  sense  of  a  new  and 
direct  disclosure  from  some  higher,  supernatural,  or,  at  least, 
superhuman  heings;  but  only  in  the  sense  of  an  ''unveiling" 
of  old  —  very  old  —  truths  to  minds  hitherto  ignorant  of 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  37 

them  —  ignorant  even  of  the  existence  and  preservation  of 
any  such  archaic  knowledge. 

It  has  become  "fashionable,"  especially  of  late,  to  deride  the 
notion  that  there  ever  was  in  the  Mysteries  of  great  and  civ- 
ilized peoples,  such  as  the  Egyptians,  Greeks  or  Romans,  any- 
thing but  priestly  imposture.  Even  the  Rosicrucians  were 
no  better  than  half  lunatics,  half  knaves.  Numerous  books 
have  been  written  on  them ;  and  tyros,  who  had  hardly  heard 
the  name  a  few  years  before,  sallied  out  as  profound  critics 
and  gnostics  on  the  subject  of  alchemy,  the  fire-philosophers 
and  mysticism  in  general.  Yet  a  long  series  of  Hierophants 
of  Egypt,  India,  Chaldaea  and  Arabia,  together  with  the 
greatest  philosophers  and  sages  of  Greece  and  the  West,  are 
known  to  have  included  under  the  designation  of  Wisdom  and 
Divine  Science  all  knowledge;  for  they  considered  the  base 
and  origin  of  every  art  and  science  as  essentially  divine. 
Plato  regarded  the  Mysteries  as  most  sacred ;  and  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  who  had  been  himself  initiated  into  the  Eleus- 
inian  Mysteries,  has  declared  that  **  the  doctrines  taught 
therein  contained  in  them  the  end  of  all  human  knowledge." 
Were  Plato  and  Clemens  two  knaves  or  two  fools,  we  wonder, 
or  —  both  ? 

Inq.  You  spoke  of  "  animosity."  If  truth  is  as  represented  by  Theosophy, 
why  has  it  met  with  such  opposition,  and  with  no  general  acceptance? 

ThKo.  For  many  and  various  reasons  again,  one  of  which  is 
the  hatred  felt  by  men  for  "innovations,"  as  they  call  them. 
Selfishness  is  essentially  conservative,  and  hates  being  dis- 
turbed. It  prefers  an  easy-going,  unexacting  lie  to  the  great- 
est truth,  if  the  latter  requires  the  sacrifice  of  one's  smallest 


38  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

comfort.  The  power  of  mental  inertia  is  great  in  anything 
that  does  not  promise  immediate  benefit  and  reward.  Our 
age  is  preeminently  unspiritual  and  matter-of-fact.  More- 
over, there  is  the  unfamiliar  character  of  Theosophic  teach- 
ings; the  highly  abstruse  nature  of  the  doctrines,  some  of 
which  contradict  flatly  many  of  the  human  vagaries  cherished 
by  sectarians,  which  have  eaten  into  the  very  core  of  popular 
beliefs.  If  we  add  to  this  the  personal  efforts  and  great  purity 
of  life  exacted  of  those  who  would  become  the  disciples  of  the 
inner  circle,  and  the  very  limited  class  to  which  an  entirely 
unselfish  code  appeals,  it  will  be  easy  to  perceive  the  reason 
why  Theosophy  is  doomed  to  such  slow,  up-hill  work.  It  is 
essentially  the  philosophy  of  those  who  suffer,  and  have  lost 
all  hope  of  being  helped  out  of  the  mire  of  life  by  any  other 
means.  Moreover,  the  history  of  any  system  of  belief  or 
morals  newly  introduced  into  a  foreign  soil  shows  that  its 
beginnings  were  impeded  by  every  obstacle  that  obscurantism 
and  selfishness  could  suggest.  "  The  crown  of  the  innovator  is 
a  crown  of  thorns  "  indeed !  No  pulling  down  of  old,  worm- 
eaten  buildings  can  be  accomplished  without  some  danger. 

Inq.  All  this  refers  rather  to  the  ethics  and  philosophy  of  Theosophy. 
Can  you  give  me  a  general  idea  of  the  Theosophical  Society,  its  objects 
and  statutes? 

Theo.  This  has  never  been  made  secret.  Ask,  and  you  shall 
receive  accurate  answers. 

Inq.     But  I  heard  that  you  were  bound  by  pledges, 
ThEo.     Only  in  the  Arcane  or  Esoteric  section. 

Inq.  And  also,  that  some  members  after  leaving  did  not  regard  themselves 
bound  by  them.     Are  they  right? 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  39 

The:o.  This  shows  that  their  idea  of  honor  is  an  imperfect  one. 
How  can  they  be  right  ?  As  well  said  in  the  Path,^^  our  Theo- 
sophical  organ  at  New  York,  treating  of  such  a  case :  "  Sup- 
pose that  a  soldier  is  tried  for  infringement  of  oath  and  dis- 
cipline, and  is  dismissed  from  the  service.  In  his  rage  at  the 
justice  he  has  called  down,  and  of  whose  penalties  he  was  dis- 
tinctly forewarned,  the  soldier  turns  to  the  enemy  with  false 
information  —  a  spy  and  traitor  —  as  a  revenge  upon  his 
former  chief,  and  claims  that  his  punishment  has  released 
him  from  his  oath  of  loyalty  to  a  cause."  Is  he  justified, 
think  you  ?  Do  you  not  think  he  deserves  being  called  a  dis- 
honorable man,  a  coward  ? 

Inq.     I  believe  so ;  but  some  think  otherwise. 

The:o.  So  much  the  worse  for  them.  But  we  will  talk  on  this 
subject  later,  if  you  please. 

10.  Founded  and  edited  by  William  Q.  Judge  (1886);  now  continued  as  the  Cen- 
tury Path,  edited  by  Katherine  Tingley.     Published  at  Point  Loma,  California. 


40  THB    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 


III 
THE  WORKING  SYSTEM  OF  THE  THEOSOPHICAL 

SOCIETY" 


THE  OBJECTS  OF  THE  SOCIETY 

Inq.     What  are  the  objects  of  the  "  Theosophical  Society"? 

Theo.  They  are  three,  and  have  been  so  from  the  beginning. 
( 1 )  To  form  the  nucleus  of  a  Universal  Brotherhood  of  Hu- 
ll. [For  years  the  Organization  was  known  as  The  Theosophical  Society  and 
Universal  Brotherhood,  the  philosophy  known  as  "Theosophy"  first  touching 
the  thought  of  the  Western  world  in  1875.  The  Society  soon  came  to  be  known 
simply  as  the  "Theosophical  Society,"  and  the  second  part  of  the  title,  which 
indicated  the  main  object  of  the  Society,  was  almost  entirely  lost  sight  of. 

On  January  13th,  1898,  the  Society  was  reorganized  by  Katherine  Tingley, 
the  third  Leader,  as  the  Universal  Brotherhood,  being  a  natural  unfoldment 
of  the  Theosophical  Society,  the  name  expressing  the  true  purpose  for  which 
it  was   established. 

On  February  18th,  1898,  the  Theosophical  Society  formally  merged  itself 
into  the  Universal  Brotherhood,  accepting  the  Constitution  of  the  same,  and 
becoming  an  integral  part  thereof. 

The  full  title  of  the  Organization  is  The  Universal  Brotherhood  and 
Theosophical  Society,  "  ordained  and  established  for  the  benefit  of  the  people 
of  the  earth  and  all  creatures,"  and  the  objects  of  which  are  as  follows: 

"  This  Organization  declares  that  Brotherhood  is  a  fact  in  Nature.  The  prin- 
cipal purpose  of  this  Organization  is  to  teach  Brotherhood,  demonstrate  that 
it  is  a  fact  in  Nature,  and  make  it  a  living  power  in  the  life  of  humanity.  The 
subsidiary  purpose  of  this  Organization  is  to  study  ancient  and  modern  religion, 
science,  philosophy  and  art;  to  investigate  the  laws  of  Nature  and  the  divine 
powers  in  man."     (5"^^  also,  Footnote  60.)] 


THE    KBY    TO    THBOSOPHY  41 

manity  without  distinction  of  race,  color,  sex,  caste  or  creed. 
(2)  To  promote  the  study  of  Aryan  and  other  Scriptures,  of 
the  world's  religions  and  sciences,  and  to  vindicate  the  im- 
portance of  old  Asiatic  literature,  such  as  that  of  the  Brah- 
manical,  Buddhist  and  Zoroastrian  philosophies.  (3)  To  in- 
vestigate the  hidden  mysteries  of  Nature  under  every  aspect 
possible,  and  the  psychic  and  spiritual  powers  latent  in  man 
especially.  These  are,  broadly  stated,  the  three  chief  objects 
of  the  Theosophical  Society. 

Inq.     Can  you  give  me  some  more  detailed  information  upon  these? 

Theo.  We  may  divide  each  of  the  three  objects  into  as  many  ex- 
planatory clauses  as  may  be  found  necessary. 

Inq.  Then  let  us  begin  with  the  first.  What  means  would  you  resort  to 
in  order  to  promote  such  a  feeHng  of  Brotherhood  among  races  that 
are  known  to  be  of  the  most  diversified  rehgions,  customs,  beliefs  and 
modes  of  thought? 

Theo.  Allow  me  to  add  that  which  you  seem  unwilling  to  ex- 
press. Of  course  we  know  that,  with  the  exception  of  two 
remnants  of  races  —  the  Parsis  and  the  Jews  —  every  nation 
is  divided,  not  merely  against  all  other  nations,  but  even 
against  itself.  This  is  found  most  prominently  among  the 
so-called  civilized  Christian  nations.  Hence  your  wonder, 
and  the  reason  why  our  first  object  appears  to  you  a  Utopia. 
Is  it  not  so  ? 

Inq.     Well,  yes ;  but  what  have  you  to  say  against  it  ? 

Theo.  Nothing  against  the  fact,  but  much  about  the  necessity 
of  removing  the  causes  which  make  Universal  Brotherhood 
a  Utopia  at  present. 


42  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Inq.     What  are,  in  your  view,  these  causes? 

ThEO.  First  and  foremost,  the  natural  selfishness  of  human 
nature.  This  selfishness,  instead  of  being  eradicated,  is  daily 
strengthened  and  stimulated  into  a  ferocious  and  irresistible 
feeling  by  the  present  religious  education,  which  tends  not 
only  to  encourage,  but  positively  to  justify  it.  People's  ideas 
about  right  and  wrong  have  been  entirely  perverted  by  the 
literal  acceptance  of  the  Jewish  Bible.  All  the  unselfishness 
of  the  altruistic  teachings  of  Jesus  has  become  merely  a  the- 
oretical subject  for  pulpit  oratory ;  while  the  precepts  of  prac- 
tical selfishness  taught  in  the  Mosaic  Bible,  against  which 
Christ  so  vainly  preached,  have  become  ingrained  into  the  in- 
nermost life  of  the  Western  nations.  "An  eye  for  an  eye, 
and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  has  come  to  be  the  first  maxim  of 
your  law.  Now,  I  state  openly  and  fearlessly  that  the  per- 
versity of  this  doctrine  and  of  so  many  others  Thcosophy 
alone  can  eradicate. 


THE  COMMON  ORIGIN  OF  MAN 

Inq.     How? 

The^o.  Simply  by  demonstrating  on  logical,  philosophical,  meta- 
physical, and  even  scientific  grounds  that:  (o)  All  men  have 
spiritually  and  physically  the  same  origin,  which  is  the  funda- 
mental teaching  of  Theosophy.  (Z?)  As  mankind  is  essen- 
tially of  one  and  the  same  essence,  and  that  essence  is  one  — 
infinite,  uncreate  and  eternal,  whether  we  call  it  God  or 
Nature  —  nothing,  therefore,  can  afifect  one  nation  or  one 
man  without  affecting  all  other  nations  and  all  other  men. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  43 

This  is  as  certain  and  as  obvious  as  that  a  stone  thrown  into 
a  pond  will,  sooner  or  later,  set  in  motion  every  single  drop 
of  water  therein. 

Inq.     But  this  is  not  the  teaching  of  Christ,  but  rather  a  pantheistic  notion. 

ThEo.  That  is  where  your  mistake  lies.  It  is  purely  Christian, 
although  not  Judaic,  and  therefore,  perhaps,  your  Biblical 
nations  prefer  to  ignore  it. 

Inq.  This  is  a  wholesale  and  unjust  accusation.  Where  are  your  proofs 
for  such  a  statement? 

Theo.  They  are  ready  at  hand.  Christ  is  alleged  to  have  said, 
"  Love  one  another,"  and  "  Love  your  enemies ;"  "  for  if  ye 
love  them  [only]  which  love  you,  what  reward  [or  merit] 
have  ye?  do  not  even  the  publicans^^  the  same?  And  if  ye 
salute  your  brethren  only,  what  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  do 
not  even  the  publicans  so?"  These  are  Christ's  words.  But 
Genesis  (ix,  25)  says:  "Cursed  be  Canaan;  a  servant  of 
servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren."  And  therefore,  not 
Christians,  but  biblical  people  prefer  the  law  of  Moses  to 
Christ's  law  of  love.  It  is  upon  the  Old  Testament,  which 
panders  to  all  their  passions,  that  they  base  their  laws  of  con- 
quest, annexation  and  tyranny  over  races  which  they  call 
inferior.  What  crimes  have  been  committed  on  the  strength 
of  this  —  if  taken  in  its  dead-letter  sense  —  infernal  passage 

12.  Publicans  —  regarded  as  so  many  thieves  and  pickpockets  in  those  days.  Among 
the  Jews  the  name  and  profession  of  a  publican  was  the  most  odious  thing  in  the 
world.  They  were  not  allowed  to  enter  the  Temple,  and  Matthew  (xviii,  17) 
speaks  of  a  heathen  and  a  publican  as  identical.  Yet  they  were  only  Roman 
tax-gatherers,  occupying  the  same  position  as  the  British  officials  in  India  and 
other  conquered  countries. 


44  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

in  Genesis,  history  alone  gives  us  an  idea,  however  inad- 
equate." 

Inq.  I  have  heard  you  say  that  the  identity  of  our  physical  origin  is  proved 
by  science,  that  of  our  spiritual  origin  by  the  Wisdom-Religion.  Yet 
we  do  not  find  Darwinists  exhibiting  great  fraternal  aflfection. 

ThKo.  Just  so.  This  is  what  shows  the  deficiency  of  the  mater- 
ialistic systems,  and  proves  that  we  Theosophists  are  in  the 
right.  The  identity  of  our  physical  origin  makes  no  appeal 
to  our  higher  and  deeper  feelings.  Matter,  deprived  of  its 
soul  and  spirit,  or  its  divine  essence,  can  not  speak  to  the 
human  heart.  But  the  identity  of  the  soul  and  spirit,  of 
real,  immortal  man,  as  Theosophy  teaches  us,  once  proven 

13.  "At  the  close  of  the  middle  ages,  slavery,  under  the  power  of  moral  forces,  had 
mainly  disappeared  from  Europe ;  but  two  momentous  events  occurred  which 
overbore  the  moral  power  working  in  European  society,  and  let  loose  a  swarm  of 
curses  upon  the  earth  such  as  mankind  had  scarcely  ever  known.  One  of  these 
events  was  the  first  voyaging  to  a  populated  and  barbarous  coast  where  human 
beings  were  a  familiar  article  of  traffic ;  and  the  other  the  discovery  of  a  new 
world,  where  mines  of  glittering  wealth  were  open,  provided  labor  could  be  im- 
ported to  work  them.  For  four  hundred  years  men  and  women  and  children  were 
torn  from  all  whom  they  knew  and  loved,  and  were  sold  on  the  coast  of  Africa  to 
foreign  traders ;  they  were  chained  below  decks  —  the  dead  often  with  the  living 
—  during  the  horrible  *  middle  passage,*  and,  according  to  Bancroft,  an  impartial 
historian,  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  out  of  three  and  a  quarter  millions  were 
thrown  into  the  sea  on  that  fatal  passage,  while  the  remainder  were  consigned  to 
nameless  misery  in  the  mines,  or  under  the  lash  in  the  cane  and  rice  fields.  The 
guilt  of  this  great  crime  rests  on  the  Christian  church.  '  In  the  name  of  the  Most 
Holy  Trinity'  the  Spanish  government  concluded  more  than  ten  treaties  auth- 
orizing the  sale  of  five  hundred  thousand  human  beings ;  in  1562  Sir  John  Haw- 
kins sailed  on  his  diabolical  errand  of  buying  slaves  in  Africa  and  selling  them 
in  the  West  Indies  in  a  ship  which  bore  the  sacred  name  of  Jesus;  while  Eliza- 
beth, the  Protestant  queen,  rewarded  him  for  his  success  in  this  first  adventure 
of  Englishmen  in  that  inhuman  traffic  by  allowing  him  to  wear  as  his  crest  '  a 
demi-Moor  in  his  proper  color,  bound  with  a  cord,'  or  in  other  words,  a  man- 
acled negro  slave." — Conquests  of  the  Cross,  quoted  from  the  Agnostic  Journal. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  45 

and  become  deep-rooted  in  our  hearts,  would  lead  us  far  on 
the  road  of  real  charity  and  brotherly  good  will. 
Inq.     But  how  does  Theosophy  explain  the  common  origin  of  man? 

Theo.  By  teaching  that  the  root  of  all  nature,  objective  and  sub- 
jective, and  everything  else  in  the  universe,  visible  and  invis- 
ible, is,  was,  and  ever  will  be  one  absolute  essence,  from  which 
all  starts,  and  into  which  everything  returns.  This  is  Aryan 
philosophy,  fully  represented  only  by  the  Vedanta  and  the 
Buddhist  system.  With  this  object  in  view,  it  is  the  duty  of 
all  Theosophists  to  promote  in  every  practical  way,  and  in  all 
countries,  the  spread  of  non-sectarian  education. 

Inq.     What  else  is  to  be  done  besides  this  ?  —  on  the  physical  plane,  I  mean. 

Theo.  In  order  to  awaken  brotherly  feeling  among  nations  we 
have  to  assist  in  the  international  exchange  of  useful  arts 
and  products,  by  advice,  information  and  co-operation  with 
all  worthy  individuals  and  associations.  What  is  also  need- 
ed is  to  impress  men  with  the  idea  that,  if  the  root  of  man- 
kind is  one,  then  there  must  also  be  one  truth  which  finds  ex- 
pression in  all  the  various  religions. 

Inq.  This  refers  to  the  common  origin  of  religions,  and  you  may  be  right 
there.  But  how  does  it  apply  to  practical  brotherhood  on  the  physical 
plane  ? 

Theo.  First,  because  that  which  is  true  on  the  metaphysical 
plane  must  be  also  true  on  the  physical.  Secondly,  because 
there  is  no  more  fertile  source  of  hatred  and  strife  than  relig- 
ious differences.  When  one  party  or  another  thinks  itself 
the  sole  possessor  of  absolute  truth,  it  becomes  only  natural 
that  it  should  think  its  neighbor  absolutely  in  the  clutches  of 
Error  or  the  Devil.     But  once  get  a  man  to  see  that  none  of 


46  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

them  has  the  zvhole  truth,  but  that  they  are  mutually  comple- 
mentary; that  the  complete  truth  can  be  found  only  in  the 
combined  views  of  all,  after  that  which  is  false  in  each  of 
them  has  been  sifted  out  —  then  true  brotherhood  in  religion 
will  be  established.     The  same  applies  in  the  physical  world. 

Inq.     Please  explain  further. 

TiiEO.  Take  an  instance.  A  plant  consists  of  a  root,  a  stem, 
and  many  shoots  and  leaves.  As  humanity,  as  a  whole,  is 
the  stem  which  grows  from  the  spiritual  root,  so  is  the  stem 
the  unity  of  the  plant.  Injure  the  stem  and  it  is  obvious 
that  every  shoot  and  leaf  will  suffer.     So  it  is  with  mankind. 

Inq.  Yes;  but  if  you  injure  a  leaf  or  a  shoot,  you  do  not  injure  the  whole 
plant. 

ThEO.  And  therefore  you  think  that  by  injuring  one  man  you 
do  not  injure  humanity?  But  how  do  you  know?  Are  you 
aware  that  even  materialistic  science  teaches  that  any  injury 
to  a  plant,  however  slight,  will  affect  the  whole  course  of  its 
future  growth  and  development?  Therefore  you  are  mis- 
taken, and  the  analogy  is  perfect.  If,  however,  you  overlook 
the  fact  that  a  cut  on  the  finger  may  often  make  the  whole 
body  suffer,  and  react  on  the  whole  nervous  system,  I  would 
all  the  more  remind  you  that  there  may  well  be  other  spiritual 
laws,  operating  on  plants  and  animals  as  well  as  on  mankind, 
although,  as  you  do  not  recognize  their  action  on  plants  and 
animals,  you  may  deny  their  existence. 

Inq.     What  laws  do  you  mean? 

Theo.  We  call  them  Karmic  laws;  but  you  will  not  understand 
the  full  meaning  of  the  term  unless  you  study  Occultism. 
However,  my  argument  does  not  rest  on  the  assumption  of 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  a7 

these  laws,  but  really  on  the  analogy  of  the  plant.  Expand 
the  idea,  carry  it  out  to  a  universal  application,  and  you 
will  soon  find  that  in  true  philosophy  every  physical  ac- 
tion has  its  moral  and  everlasting  effect.  Injure  a  man  by 
doing  him  bodily  harm :  you  may  think  that  his  pain  and  suf- 
fering can  not  spread  by  any  means  to  his  neighbors,  least  of 
all  to  men  of  other  nations.  We  affirm  that  it  will,  in  good 
time.  Therefore  we  say  that  unless  every  man  is  brought  to 
understand,  and  accept  as  an  axiomatic  truth,  that  by  wrong- 
ing one  man  we  wrong  not  only  ourselves,  but  the  whole  of 
humanity  in  the  long  run,  no  brotherly  feelings  such  as 
preached  by  all  the  great  Reformers  —  preeminently  by 
Buddha  and  Jesus  —  are  possible  on  earth. 


OUR  OTHER  OBJECTS 

Inq.  Will  you  now  explain  the  methods  by  which  you  propose  to  carry 
out  the  second  object? 

ThKo.  To  collect  for  the  library  of  our  International  Head- 
quarters^'* all  the  good  works  upon  the  world's  religions  that 
we  can;  to  put  into  written  form  correct  information  upon 
the  various  ancient  philosophies,  traditions  and  legends,  and 
disseminate  the  same  in  such  practicable  ways  as  the  transla- 
tion and  publication  of  original  works  of  value,  and  extracts 
from  and  commentaries  upon  the  same,  also  by  the  oral  in- 
structions of  persons  learned  in  their  respective  departments 
[and  authorized  by  the  Leader  and  Official  Plead  of  the 
Organization  to  do  so]. 

14.     Now  at  Point  Loma,  California. 


48  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Inq.  And  what  about  the  third  object,  to  investigate  the  hidden  laws  of 
Nature  and  the  psychic  and  spiritual  powers  latent  in  man? 

ThEo.  This  has  to  be  achieved  also  by  means  of  pubHcations  in 
those  places  where  no  lectures  and  personal  teachings  are 
possible.  Our  duty  is  to  keep  alive  in  man  his  spiritual  in- 
tuitions ;  to  oppose  and  counteract  —  after  due  investigation 
and  proof  of  its  irrational  nature  —  bigotry  in  every  form, 
religious,  scientific  or  social,  and  cant  above  all,  whether  as 
religious  sectarianism  or  as  belief  in  miracles  or  anything 
supernatural.  What  we  have  to  do  is  to  seek  to  obtain  know- 
ledge of  all  the  laws  of  Nature,  and  to  diffuse  it ;  to  encourage 
the  study  of  those  laws  least  understood  by  modern  people  — 
the  so-called  Occult  Sciences,  based  on  the  true  knozvledge  of 
Nature,  instead  of,  as  at  present,  on  superstitions  beliefs  based 
on  blind  faith  and  authority.  Popular  folk-lore  and  tradi- 
tions, however  fanciful  at  times,  when  sifted,  may  lead  to  the 
discovery  of  long-lost  but  important  secrets  of  Nature.  The 
Society,  therefore,  aims  at  pursuing  this  line  of  inquiry,  in 
the  hope  of  widening  the  field  of  scientific  and  philosophical 
observation. 


ON  THE  SAC  REDNESS  OF  THE  PLEDGE 

Inq.     Have  you  any  ethical  system  that  you  carry  out  in  the  Society? 

ThEo.  The  ethics  are  there,  ready  and  clear  enough  for  whom- 
soever would  follow  them.  They  are  the  essence  and  cream 
of  the  world's  ethics,  gathered  from  the  teachings  of  all  the 
world's  great  reformers.  Therefore  you  will  find  repre- 
sented therein  Confucius  and  Zoroaster,  Lao-Tze  and  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  49 

Bhagavad-Gita,  the  precepts  of  Gautama  Buddha  and  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  of  Hillel  and  his  school,  as  also  of  Pythagoras, 
Socrates,  Plato,  and  their  schools. 

Inc.  Do  the  members  of  your  Society  carry  out  these  precepts?  I  have 
heard  of  great  dissensions  and  quarrels  among  them. 

ThEo.  Very  naturally,  since,  although  the  reform  in  its  present 
shape  may  be  called  new,  the  men  and  women  to  be  reformed 
are  the  same  human,  sinning  natures  as  of  old.  As  already 
said,  the  earnest  working  members  are  few ;  but  many  are  the 
sincere  and  well-disposed  persons  who  try  their  best  to  live  up 
to  the  Society's  and  their  own  ideals.  Our  duty  is  to  encour- 
age and  assist  individual  Fellows  in  self-improvement,  intel- 
lectual, moral  and  spiritual;  not  to  blame  or  condemn  those 
who  fail.  We  have,  strictly  speaking,  no  right  to  refuse  ad- 
mission to  any  one  —  especially  in  the  Esoteric  Section  of  the 
Society,  wherein  "  he  who  enters  is  as  one  newly  born."  But 
if  any  member  —  his  sacred  pledges  on  his  word  of  honor 
and  immortal  Self  notwithstanding  —  chooses,  after  that 
"  new  birth,"  to  continue  with  the  new  man  the  vices  or 
defects  of  his  old  life,  and  to  indulge  in  them  still  in  the 
Society,  then,  of  course,  he  is  more  than  likely  to  be  asked  to 
resign  and  withdraw,  or,  in  case  of  his  refusal,  to  be  expelled. 
We  have  the  strictest  rules  for  such  emergencies. 

Inq.     Can  some  of  them  be  mentioned? 

Theo.  They  can.  To  begin  with,  no  Fellow  in  the  Society, 
whether  exoteric  or  esoteric,  has  a  right  to  force  his  personal 
opinions  upon  another  Fellow.  This  is  one  of  the  offenses 
in  the  Society  at  large.  As  regards  the  inner  section,  now 
called  the  Esoteric,  the  following  rules  were  laid  down  and 


50  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

adopted  so  far  back  as  1880:  "  No  Fellow  shall  put  to  his 
selfish  use  any  knowledge  communicated  to  him  by  any  mem- 
ber of  the  first  section  [now  a  higher  ''degree"],  violation  of 
the  rule  being  punished  by  expulsion."  Now,  however,  be- 
fore any  such  knowledge  can  be  imparted,  the  applicant  has 
to  bind  himself  by  a  solemn  oath  not  to  use  it  for  selfish 
purposes,  nor  to  reveal  anything  said  except  by  permission/^ 

Inq.  But  is  a  man  expelled,  or  resigning,  from  the  section  free  to  reveal 
anything  he  may  have  learned,  or  to  break  any  clause  of  the  pledge  he 
has  taken? 

Theo.     Certainly  not. 

Inq.     But  is  this  reasonable  or  just? 

ThEO.  Most  assuredly.  To  any  man  or  woman  with  the  slight- 
est honorable  feeling  a  pledge  of  secrecy  taken  even  on  one's 
zvord  of  honor,  much  more  to  one's  Higher  Self  —  the  God 
within  —  is  binding  till  death.  And  though  he  may  leave 
the  Section  and  the  Society,  no  man  or  woman  of  honor  will 
think  of  attacking  or  injuring  a  body  to  which  he  or  she  has 
been  so  pledged. 

Inq.     But  is  not  this  going  rather  far? 

ThEo.  Perhaps  so,  according  to  the  low  standard  of  the  present 
time  and  morality.  But  if  it  does  not  bind  as  far  as  this, 
what  use  is  a  pledge  at  all?     How  can  any  one  expect  to  be 

IS.  [This  precaution  had  to  be  taken  because  some  who  had  been  admitted  to  the 
Society,  on  going  away  after  failing  in  their  duties  as  members,  tried  to  sell 
what  instruction  and  teaching  they  had  received,  and  by  so  doing  tended  to 
bring  discredit  upon  H.  P.  Blavatsky's  work.  It  is  well  known  that  all  instruc- 
tion and  teaching  given  by  her  was  given  without  money  and  without  price,  and 
this  has  been  strictly  followed  by  her  successors,  W.  Q.  Judge  and  Katherine 
Tingley.] 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  51 

taught  secret  knowledge  if  he  is  to  be  at  Hberty  to  free 
himself  from  all  the  obligations  he  had  taken  whenever  he 
pleases?  What  security,  confidence  or  trust  would  ever  exist 
among  men  if  pledges  such  as  this  were  to  have  no  really 
binding  force  at  all?  Believe  me,  the  law  of  retribution 
(Karma)  would  very  soon  overtake  one  who  so  broke  his 
pledge ;  perhaps  even  as  soon  as  the  contempt  of  every  honor- 
able man  would,  even  on  this  physical  plane.  As  well  ex- 
pressed in  the  Path,  July,  1889,  just  cited  on  this  subject: 

A  pledge,  once  taken,  is  forever  binding  in  both  the  moral  and  the 
occult  Ivor  Ids.  If  we  break  it  once  and  are  punished,  that  does  not 
justify  us  in  breaking  it  again ;  and  so  long  as  we  do,  so  long  will  the 
mighty  lever  of  the  Law  [of  Karma]  react  upon  us. 


52  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


IV 

THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  THEOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY 

TO  THEOSOPHY 


ON  SELF-IMPROVEMENT 


Inq.  Is  moral  elevation,  then,  the  principal  thing  insisted  upon  in  the  So- 
ciety ? 

ThEo.  Undoubtedly!  He  who  would  be  a  true  Theosophist 
must  bring  himself  to  live  as  one. 

Inq.  If  so,  then,  as  I  remarked  before,  the  behavior  of  some  members 
strangely  belies  this  fundamental  rule. 

ThEo.  Indeed  it  does.  But  this  cannot  be  helped  among  us,  any- 
more than  among  those  who  call  themselves  Christians  and 
act  like  fiends.  This  is  no  fault  of  our  Constitution  and 
rules,  but  that  of  human  nature.  Even  in  some  exoteric 
public  Branches  the  members  pledge  themselves  on  their 
"  Higher  Self  "  to  live  the  life  prescribed  by  Theosophy. 
They  have  to  bring  their  Divine  Self  to  guide  their  every 
thought  and  action  every  day  and  at  every  moment  of  their 
lives.  A  true  Theosophist  ought  ''  to  deal  justly  and  walk 
humbly." 

Inq.     What  do  you  mean  by  this? 

Theo.     Simply  this :  the  one  self  has  to  forget  itself  for  the  many 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  S3 

selves.  Let  me  answer  you  in  the  words  of  a  true  Philale- 
theian,  a  Fellow  of  the  Theosophical  Society,  who  has  beau- 
tifully expressed  it  as  follows : 

What  every  man  needs  first  is  to  find  himself,  and  then  take  an  hon- 
est inventory  of  his  subjective  possessions ;  and,  bad  or  bankrupt  as 
it  may  be,  it  is  not  beyond  redemption  if  we  set  about  it  in  earnest. 

But  how  many  do?  All  are  willing  to  work  for  their  own 
development  and  progress ;  very  few  for  those  of  others.  To 
quote  the  same  writer  again : 

Men  have  been  deceived  and  deluded  long  enough ;  they  must  break 
their  idols,  put  away  their  shams,  and  go  to  work  for  themselves  —  nay, 
there  is  one  little  word  too  much  or  too  many,  for  he  who  works  for 
himself  had  better  not  work  at  all;  rather  let  him  work  himself  for 
others,  for  all.  For  every  flower  of  love  and  charity  he  plants  in  his 
neighbor's  garden  a  loathsome  weed  will  disappear  from  his  own,  and 
so  this  garden  of  the  gods  —  humanity  —  shall  blossom  as  a  rose.  In 
all  Bibles,  all  religions,  this  is  plainly  set  forth ;  but  designing  men 
have  at  first  misinterpreted  and  finally  emasculated,  materialized,  be- 
sotted them.  It  does  not  require  a  new  revelation.  Let  every  man 
be  a  revelation  unto  himself.  Let  once  man's  immortal  spirit  take 
possession  of  the  temple  of  his  body,  drive  out  the  money-changers  and 
every  unclean  thing,  and  his  own  divine  humanity  will  redeem  him ; 
for  when  he  is  thus  at  one  with  himself  he  will  know  the  "builder  of 
the  temple." 

Inq.     This  is  pure  altruism,  I  confess. 

ThEo.  It  is.  And  if  only  one  Fellow  of  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety out  of  ten  would  practise  it,  ours  would  be  a  body  of  elect 
indeed.  But  there  are  those  among  the  outsiders  who  will  al- 
ways refuse  to  see  the  essential  difiference  between  Theosophy 
and  the  Theosophical  Society,  the  idea  and  its  imperfect  em- 
bodiment.   Such  would  visit  every  sin  and  shortcoming  of  the 


54  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

vehicle  —  the  human  body  —  on  the  pure  spirit  which  sheds 
thereon  its  divine  Hght.  Is  this  just  to  either?  They  throw 
stones  at  an  association  that  tries  to  work  up  to,  and  for  the 
propagation  of,  its  ideal  with  most  tremendous  odds  against 
it.  Some  vilify  the  Theosophical  Society  only  because  it  pre- 
sumes to  attempt  to  do  that  in  which  other  systems  —  Church 
and  State  Christianity  preeminently  —  have  failed  most  egre- 
giously ;  others  because  they  w^ould  fain  preserve  the  existing 
state  of  things ;  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  in  the  seat  of  Moses, 
and  publicans  and  sinners  reveling  in  high  places,  as  under 
the  Roman  empire  during  its  decadence.  Fair-minded  people, 
at  any  rate,  ought  to  remember  that  the  man  who  does  all  he 
can  does  as  much  as  he  who  has  achieved  the  most,  in  this 
world  of  relative  possibilities.  This  is  a  simple  truism  —  an 
axiom  supported  for  believers  in  the  Gospels  by  the  parable 
of  the  talents,  given  by  their  Master:  the  servant  who  dou- 
bled his  tzvo  talents  was  rewarded  as  much  as  the  other  fellow- 
servant  who  had  received  five.  To  every  man  it  is  given 
"  according  to  his  several  ability." 

Inq,  Yet  it  is  rather  difficult  to  draw  the  Hne  of  demarcation  between  the 
abstract  and  the  concrete  in  this  case,  as  we  have  only  the  latter  by 
which  to  form  our  judgment. 

Theo.  Then  why  make  an  exception  for  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety? Justice,  like  charity,  ought  to  begin  at  home.  Will 
you  revile  and  scoff  at  the  "  Sermon  on  the  Mount "  because 
your  social,  political  and  even  religious  laws  have,  so  far, 
not  only  failed  to  carry  out  its  precepts  in  their  spirit,  but 
even  in  their  dead  letter?  Abolish  the  oath  in  courts,  par- 
liament, army,  and  everywhere,  and  do  as  the  Quakers  do, 
if  you  ivill  call  yourselves  Christians.     Abolish  the  courts 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  55 

themselves;  for  if  you  would  follow  the  Commandments  of 
Christ,  you  have  to  give  away  your  cloak  to  him  who  deprives 
you  of  your  coat,  and  turn  your  left  cheek  to  the  bully  who 
smites  you  on  the  right.  "  Resist  not  evil,"  "  love  your  ene- 
mies, bless  them  that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate 
you;"  for  "  whosoever  shall  break  one  of  the  least  of  these 
Commandments,  and  shall  teach  men  so,  he  shall  be  called  the 
least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,'*^  and  "  whosoever  shall  say, 
Thou  fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of  hell-fire."  And  why  should 
you  judge,  if  you  would  not  be  judged  in  your  turn?  Insist 
that  between  Theosophy  and  the  Theosophical  Society  there 
is  no  difference,  and  forthwith  you  lay  the  system  of  Christ- 
ianity and  its  very  essence  open  to  the  same  charges,  only  in 
a  more  serious  form. 

Inq.     Why  more  serious? 

Theo.  Because,  while  the  leaders  of  the  Theosophical  movement, 
recognizing  fully  their  shortcomings,  try  all  they  can  to 
amend  their  ways  and  uproot  the  evil  existing  in  the  Society, 
and  while  their  rules  and  by-laws  are  framed  in  the  spirit  of 
Theosophy,  the  Legislators  and  the  Churches  of  nations  and 
countries  which  call  themselves  Christian  do  the  reverse. 
Our  members  —  even  the  worst  among  them  —  are  no  worse 
than  the  average  Christian.  Moreover,  if  the  Western  The- 
osophists  experience  so  much  difficulty  in  leading  the  true 
Theosophical  life,  it  is  because  they  are  all  the  children  of 
their  generation.  Every  one  of  them  was  a  Christian,  bred 
and  brought  up  in  the  sophistry  of  his  church,  his  social  cus- 
toms and  even  his  paradoxical  laws.  He  was  this  before 
he  became  a  Theosophist  —  or  rather  a  member  of  the  Theo- 


56  '  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

sophical  Society,  as  it  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  that  be- 
tween the  abstract  ideal  and  its  vehicle  there  is  a  most  im- 
portant difference. 


THE  ABSTRACT  AND  THE  CONCRETE 

Inq.     Please  elucidate  this  difference  a  little  more. 

Theo.  The  Society  is  a  great  body  of  men  and  women,  composed 
of  the  most  heterogeneous  elements.  Theosophy  in  its  ab- 
stract meaning  is  Divine  Wisdom,  or  the  aggregate  of  the 
knowledge  and  wisdom  that  underlie  the  Universe  —  the 
homogeneity  of  eternal  good;  and  in  its  concrete  sense  it 
is  the  sum  total  of  the  same  as  allotted  to  man  by  Nature 
on  this  earth,  and  no  more.  Some  members  earnestly  en- 
deavor to  realize  and,  so  to  speak,  to  objectivize  Theosophy 
in  their  lives ;  while  others  desire  only  to  know  of,  not  to  prac- 
tise it;  and  others  still  may  have  joined  the  Society  merely 
out  of  curiosity  or  a  passing  interest,  or  perhaps,  again,  be- 
cause some  of  their  friends  belong  to  it.  How  then,  can  the 
system  be  judged  by  the  standard  of  those  who  would  assume 
the  name  without  any  right  to  it?  Is  poetry  or  its  muse  to 
be  measured  only  by  those  would-be  poets  who  afflict  our 
ears?  The  Society  can  be  regarded  as  the  embodiment  of 
Theosophy  only  in  its  abstract  motives ;  it  can  never  presume 
to  call  itself  its  concrete  vehicle  so  long  as  human  imperfec- 
tions and  weaknesses  are  all  represented  in  its  body;  other- 
wise the  Society  would  be  only  repeating  the  great  error  and 
the  overflowing  sacrileges  of  the  so-called  churches  of  Christ. 
If  Eastern  comparisons  may  be  permitted,  Theosophy  is  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  57 

shoreless  ocean  of  universal  truth,  love,  and  wisdom,  reflect- 
ing its  radiance  on  the  earth;  while  the  Theosophical  Soci- 
ety is  only  a  visible  bubble  on  that  reflection.  Theosophy  is 
divine  nature,  visible  and  invisible,  and  its  Society  human 
nature  trying  to  ascend  to  its  divine  parent.  Theosophy, 
finally,  is  the  fixed,  eternal  sun,  and  its  Society  the  evan- 
escent comet  trying  to  settle  in  an  orbit  to  become  a  planet, 
ever  revolving  within  the  attraction  of  the  sun  of  truth.  It 
was  formed  to  assist  in  showing  to  men  that  such  a  thing  as 
Theosophy  exists,  and  to  help  them  to  ascend  toward  it  by 
studying  and  assimilating  its  eternal  verities. 

Inq.     I  thought  you  said  you  had  no  tenets  or  doctrines  of  your  own? 

Theo.  Nor  have  we.  The  Society  has  no  wisdom  of  its  own 
to  support  or  teach.  It  is  simply  the  storehouse  of  all  the 
truths  uttered  by  the  great  seers,  initiates  and  prophets  of 
historic  and  even  prehistoric  ages  —  at  least,  as  many  as  it 
can  get.  Therefore  it  is  merely  the  channel  through  which 
more  or  less  of  truth  found  in  the  accumulated  utterances 
of  humanity's  great  teachers  is  poured  out  into  the  world. 

Inq.  But  is  such  truth  unreachable  outside  of  the  Society?  Does  not 
every  Church  claim  the  same  ? 

Theo.  Not  at  all.  The  undeniable  existence  of  great  initiates 
—  true  '*  Sons  of  God  "  —  shows  that  such  wisdom  was  often 
reached  by  isolated  individuals;  never,  however,  without  the 
guidance  of  a  master  at  first.  But  most  of  the  followers  of 
such,  when  they  became  masters  in  their  turn,  have  dwarfed 
the  Catholicism  of  these  teachings  into  the  narrow  groove  of 
their  own  sectarian  dogmas.  The  commandments  of  a 
chosen  master  alone  were  then  adopted  and  followed,  to  the 


58  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

exclusion  of  all  others  —  if  followed  at  all,  note  well,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Each  religion  is  thus 
a  bit  of  the  divine  truth,  made  to  focus  a  vast  panorama  of  hu- 
man fancy  which  claims  to  represent  and  replace  that  truth. 

Inq.     But  Theosophy,  you  say,  is  not  a  religion. 

Theo.  Most  assuredly  it  is  not,  since  it  is  the  essence  of  all 
religion  and  of  absolute  truth,  a  drop  of  which  only  underlies 
every  creed.  To  resort  once  more  to  metaphor,  Theosophy 
on  earth  is  like  the  white  ray  of  the  spectrum,  and  every  re- 
ligion only  one  of  the  seven  prismatic  colors.  Ignoring  all 
the  others,  and  cursing  them  as  false,  every  special  colored 
ray  claims  not  only  priority,  but  to  be  that  white  ray  itself, 
and  anathematizes  even  its  own  tints  from  light  to  dark  as 
heresies.  Yet  as  the  sun  of  truth  rises  higher  and  higher  on 
the  horizon  of  man's  perception,  and  each  colored  ray  grad- 
ually fades  out  until  it  is  finally  reabsorbed  in  its  turn,  hu- 
manity will  at  last  be  cursed  no  longer  with  artificial  polari- 
zations, but  will  find  itself  bathing  in  the  pure,  colorless  sun- 
light of  eternal  truth.     And  this  will  be  Theosophia. 

Inq.  Your  claim  is,  then,  that  all  the  great  religions  are  derived  from 
Theosophy,  and  that  it  is  by  assimilating  it  that  the  world  will  be  finally 
saved  from  the  curse  of  its  great  illusions  and  errors? 

ThKo.  Precisely  so.  And  we  add  that  our  Theosophical  So- 
ciety is  the  humble  seed  which,  if  watered  and  let  live,  will 
finally  produce  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  of  Good  and  Evil 
which  is  grafted  on  the  Tree  of  Life  Eternal.  For  it  is  only 
by  studying  the  various  great  religions  and  philosophies  of 
humanity,  by  comparing  them  dispassionately  and  with  an 
unbiased  mind,  that  men  can  hope  to  arrive  at  the  truth.     It 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  59 

is  especially  by  finding  out  and  noting  their  various  points  of 
agreement  that  we  may  achieve  this  result.  For  no  sooner 
do  we  arrive  —  either  by  study  or  by  being  taught  by  some- 
one who  knows  —  at  their  inner  meaning  than  we  find,  almost 
in  every  case,  that  it  expresses  some  great  truth  in  Nature. 

Inq.  We  have  heard  of  a  Golden  Age  that  was,  and  what  you  describe 
would  be  a  Golden  Age  to  be  realized  at  some  future  day.  When  shall 
it  be? 

Theo.  Not  before  humanity  as  a  whole  feels  the  need  of  it. 
A  maxim  in  the  Persian  Javidan  Khirad  says :  "  Truth  is  of 
two  kinds  —  one  manifest  and  self-evident,  the  other  de- 
manding incessantly  new  demonstrations  and  proofs."  It 
is  only  when  this  latter  kind  of  truth  becomes  as  universally 
obvious  as  it  is  now  dim  and  therefore  liable  to  be  distorted 
by  sophistry  and  casuistry  —  it  is  only  when  the  two  kinds 
will  have  become  once  more  one,  that  all  people  will  be 
brought  to  see  alike. 

Inq.  But  surely  those  few  who  have  felt  the  need  of  such  truths  must  have 
made  up  their  minds  to  believe  in  something  definite?  You  tell  me 
that,  the  Society  having  no  doctrines  of  its  own.  every  member  may 
believe  as  he  chooses  and  accept  what  he  pleases.  This  looks  as  if 
the  Theosophical  Society  were  bent  upon  reviving  the  confusion  of 
languages  and  beliefs  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  of  old.  Have  you  no 
beliefs  in  common? 

ThEO.  What  is  meant  by  the  Society  having  no  tenets  or  doc- 
trines of  its  own  is  that  no  special  doctrines  or  beliefs  are 
obligatory  on  its  members ;  but  of  course  this  applies  only  to 
the  body  as  a  whole.  The  Society,  as  you  were  told,  is  di- 
vided into  an  outer  and  an  inner  body.     Those  who  belong 


60  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

to  the  latter  have,  of  course,  a  philosophy  or,  if  you  so  prefer 
it,  a  religious  system  of  their  own.^^ 

Inq.     May  we  be  told  what  it  is? 

Theo.  We  make  no  secret  of  it.  It  was  outlined  a  few  years 
ago  in  the  early  publications  of  the  Society,^^  and  may  be 
found  still  more  elaborated  in  The  Secret  Doctrine.  It  is 
based  on  the  oldest  philosophy  of  the  world,  called  the  Wis- 
dom-Religion or  the  Archaic  Doctrine.  If  you  like,  you 
may  ask  questions  and  have  them  explained. 

16.  "  Every  member  has  the  right  to  believe  or  disbelieve  in  any  religious  system  or 
philosophy,  each  being  required  to  show  that  tolerance  for  the  opinions  of  others 
which  he  expects  for  his  own." — Constitution  of  the  Universal  Brotherhood 
AND  ThEosophical  Society. 

17.    For  Book-List,  see  end. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  61 


V 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  TEACHINGS  OF  THEOSOPHY 


ON  GOD  AND  PRAYER 


Inq.     Do  you  believe  in  God? 

Theo.     That  depends  upon  what  you  mean  by  the  term. 

Inq.  I  mean  the  God  of  the  Christians,  the  Father  of  Jesus,  and  the  Crea- 
tor: the  Biblical  God  of  Moses,  in  short. 

Theo.  In  such  a  God  we  do  not  believe.  We  reject  the  idea 
of  a  personal  or  an  extra-cosmic  and  anthropomorphic  God, 
who  is  but  the  gigantic  shadow  of  man,  and  not  even  of  man 
at  his  best.  The  God  of  theology,  we  say  —  and  prove  it  — 
is  a  bundle  of  contradictions  and  a  logical  impossibility. 
Therefore  we  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  him. 

Inq.     State  your  reasons,  if  you  please. 

Theo.  They  are  many,  and  cannot  all  receive  attention.  But 
here  are  a  few.  This  God  is  called  by  his  devotees  infinite 
and  absolute,  is  he  not? 

Inq.     I  believe  he  is. 

Theo.  Then  if  infinite  —  /.  e.,  limitless  —  and  especially  if  ab- 
solute, how  can  he  have  a  form  and  be  a  creator  of  anything? 
Form  implies  limitation,  and  a  beginning  as  well  as  an  end; 


62  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

and  in  order  to  create,  a  Being  must  think  and  plan.  How 
can  the  ABSOLUTE  be  supposed  to  think  —  i.e.,  have  any 
relation  whatever  to  that  which  is  limited,  finite  and  con- 
ditioned? This  is  a  philosophical  and  a  logical  absurdity. 
Even  the  Hebrew  Kabalah  rejects  such  an  idea,  and  there- 
fore makes  of  the  one  and  the  Absolute  Deific  Principle  an 
infinite  Unity  called  Ain  Suph.^*  In  order  to  create,  the 
Creator  has  to  become  active;  and  as  this  is  impossible 
for  ABSOLUTENESS,  the  infinite  principle  had  to  be  shown 
becoming  the  cause  of  evolution  (not  creation)  in  an  indirect 
way  —  i.e.,  through  the  emanation  from  itself  (another  ab- 
surdity, due  this  time  to  the  translators  of  the  Kabalah)*" 
of  the  Sephiroth. 

Inq.  How  about  those  Kabalists  who,  while  being  such,  still  believe  in 
Jehovah,  or  the  Tetragrammaton  ? 

Thdo.  They  are  at  liberty  to  believe  in  what  they  please,  as 
their  belief  or  disbelief  can  hardly  afifect  a  self-evident  fact. 
The  Jesuits  tell  us  that  two  and  two  are  not  always  four  to  a 
certainty,  since  it  depends  on  the  will  of  God  to  make  2x2 
=  5.     Shall  we  accept  their  sophistry  for  all  that  ? 

Inq.     Then  you  are  atheists? 

The:o.     Not  that  we  know  of,  and  not  unless  the  epithet  of 

18.  Ain  Suph,     e^iD    ]'K  =  to  irav,  =  aireLpov,  the  Endless,  or   Boundless,  in   and 

with  Nature,  the  Non-existent  which  IS,  but  is  not  a  Being. 

19.  How  can  the  non-active  eternal  principle  emanate  or  emit?    The   Parabrahman 

of  the  Vedantins  does  nothing  of  the  kind ;  nor  does  the  Ain  Suph  of  the 
Chaldaean  Kabalah.  It  is  an  eternal  and  periodical  law  which  causes  an  active 
and  creative  force  (the  Logos)  to  emanate  from  the  ever-concealed  and  in- 
comprehensible one  principle  at  the  beginning  of  every  Mahamanvantara,  or 
new  cycle  of  life. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  63 

"Atheist  "  is  to  be  applied  to  all  those  who  disbelieve  in  an 
anthropomorphic  God.  We  believe  in  a  Universal  Divine 
Principle,  the  root  of  ALL,  from  which  all  proceeds,  and 
within  which  all  shall  be  absorbed  at  the  end  of  the  great 
cycle  of  Being. 

Inq.  This  is  the  old,  old  claim  of  Pantheism.  If  you  are  Pantheists,  you 
can  not  be  Deists ;  and  if  you  are  not  Deists,  then  you  have  to  answer 
to  the  name  of  Atheists. 

Theo.  Not  necessarily  so.  The  term  "  Pantheism  "  is,  again, 
one  of  the  many  abused  terms  whose  real  and  primitive 
meaning  has  been  distorted  by  blind  prejudice  and  a  one- 
sidedness  of  view.  If  you  accept  the  Christian  etymology 
of  this  compound  word,  and  form  it  of  pan  {-rav),  "all," 
and  theos  (^eos),  "  god,"  and  then  imagine  and  teach  that  this 
means  that  every  stone  and  every  tree  in  Nature  is  a  God  or 
the  ONE  God,  then,  of  course,  you  will  be  right,  and  make  of 
Pantheists  fetish-worshippers,  in  addition  to  their  legitimate 
name.  But  you  will  hardly  be  as  successful  if  you  etymo- 
logize the  word  "  Pantheism  "  esoterically,  and  as  we  do. 

Inq.     What  is,  then,  your  definition  of  it? 

Theo.  Let  me  ask  you  a  question  in  my  turn.  What  do  you 
understand  by  Pan,  or  Nature? 

Inq.  Nature  is,  I  suppose,  the  sum  total  of  things  existing  around  iis ;  the 
aggregate  of  causes  and  eflfects  in  the  world  of  matter,  the  creation  or 
universe. 

Theo.  Hence  the  personified  sum  and  order  of  known  causes 
and  effects;  the  total  of  all  finite  agencies  and  forces,  as 
utterly  disconnected  from  an  intelligent  Creator  or  Creators, 


64  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

and  perhaps  "  conceived  of  as  a  single  and  separate  force  " 
—  as  in  your  cyclopaedias  ? 

Inq.     Yes,  I  believe  so. 

Theo.  Well,  we  neither  take  into  consideration  this  objective 
and  material  nature,  which  we  call  an  evanescent  illusion, 
nor  do  we  mean  by  Pan,  Nature,  in  the  sense  of  its  accepted 
derivation  from  the  Latin  natura,  "  becoming,"  from  7tasci, 
*'  to  be  born."  When  we  speak  of  the  Deity  and  make  it  iden- 
tical—  hence  coeval  —  with  Nature,  the  eternal  and  uncreate 
Nature  is  meant,  and  not  your  aggregate  of  flitting  shadows 
and  finite  unrealities.  We  leave  it  to  the  hymn-makers  to 
call  the  visible  sky  or  heaven,  God's  Throne,  and  our  earth  of 
mud  His  footstool.  Our  DEITY  is  neither  in  a  paradise  nor 
in  a  particular  tree,  building  or  mountain;  it  is  everywhere, 
in  every  atom  of  the  visible  as  of  the  invisible  Cosmos,  in, 
over  and  around  every  invisible  atom  and  divisible  molecule ; 
for  IT  is  the  mysterious  power  of  evolution  and  involution, 
the  omnipresent,  omnipotent  and  even  omniscient  creative 
potentiality. 

Inq.  Stop !  Omniscience  is  the  prerogative  of  something  that  thinks,  and 
you  deny  to  your  Absoluteness  the  power  of  thought. 

Theo.  We  deny  it  to  the  ABSOLUTE,  since  thought  is  some- 
thing limited  and  conditioned.  But  you  evidently  forget 
that  in  philosophy  absolute  unconsciousness  is  also  absolute 
consciousness,  as  otherwise  it  would  not  be  absolute. 

Inq.     Then  your  Absolute  thinks? 

Theo.  No,  IT  does  not  —  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  Absol- 
ute Thought  itself.     Nor  does  it  exist,  for  the  same  reason, 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  65 

as  it  is  absolute  existence,  and  Be-ness,  not  a  Being.  Read 
the  superb  Kabalistic  poem  by  Solomon  ben-Yehudah  Ibn 
Gebirol,  in  the  Kether  Malchuth,  and  you  will  understand : 

Thou  art  one,  the  root  of  all  numbers,  but  not  as  an  element  of 
numeration ;  for  unity  admits  not  of  multiplication,  change,  or  form. 
Thou  art  one,  and  in  the  secret  of  Thy  unity  the  wisest  of  men  are 
lost,  because  they  know  it  not.  Thou  art  one,  and  Thy  unity  is  never 
diminished,  never  extended,  and  cannot  be  changed.  Thou  art  one, 
and  no  thought  of  mine  can  fix  for  Thee  a  limit,  or  define  Thee. 
Thou  ART,  but  not  as  one  existent,  for  the  understanding  and  vision 
of  mortals  cannot  attain  to  Thy  existence,  nor  determine  for  Thee  the 
where,  the  how,  and  the  why. 

In  short,  our  Deity  is  the  eternal,  incessantly  evolving, 
not  creating,  builder  of  the  universe;  that  universe  itself  un- 
folding out  of  its  own  essence,  not  being  made.  It  is  a 
sphere,  without  circumference,  in  its  symbolism,  which  has 
but  one  ever-acting  attribute  embracing  all  other  existing 
or  thinkable  attributes  —  ITSELF.  It  is  the  one  law,  giving 
the  impulse  to  manifested,  eternal  and  immutable  laws,  with- 
in that  never-manifesting,  because  absolute,  LAW  which  in 
its  manifesting  periods  is  The  ever-Becoming. 

Inq.  I  once  heard  one  of  your  members  remark  that  Universal  Deity,  be- 
ing everywhere,  was  in  vessels  of  dishonor,  as  in  those  of  honor,  and 
therefore  was  present  in  every  atom  of  my  cigar-ash !  Is  not  this  rank 
blasphemy  ? 

Theo.  I  do  not  think  so,  as  simple  logic  can  hardly  be  regarded 
as  blasphemy.  Were  we  to  exclude  the  Omnipresent  Prin- 
ciple from  one  single  mathematical  point  of  the  universe,  or 
from  a  particle  of  matter  occupying  any  conceivable  space, 
could  we  still  reeard  it  as  infinite? 


66  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

IS  IT  NECESSARY  TO  PRAY  ? 

Inq.     Do  you  believe  in  prayer,  and  do  you  ever  pray? 
Theo.     We  do  not.     We  act  instead  of  talking. 

Inq.     You  do  not  offer  prayers  even  to  the  Absolute  Principle? 

Theo.  Why  should  we?  Being  well-occupied  people,  we  can 
hardly  afford  to  lose  time  in  addressing  verbal  prayers  to  a 
pure  abstraction.  The  Unknowable  is  capable  of  relations 
only  in  its  parts  one  to  another,  but  is  non-existent  as  regards 
any  finite  relations.  The  visible  universe  depends  for  its 
existence  and  phenomena  on  its  mutually  acting  forms  and 
their  laws,  not  on  prayer  or  prayers. 

Inq.     Do  you  not  believe  at  all  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer? 

Theo.  Not  in  prayer  taught  in  so  many  words  and  repeated 
externally,  if  by  prayer  you  mean  the  outward  petition  to 
an  unknown  God  as  the  addressee,  which  was  inaugurated 
by  the  Jews  and  popularized  by  the  Pharisees. 

Inq.     Is  there  any  other  kind  of  prayer? 

Theo.  Most  decidedly;  we  call  it  wiEiy-PRAYER,  and  it  is  rather 
an  internal  command  than  a  petition. 

Inq.     To  whom,  then,  do  you  pray  when  you  do  so? 

Theo.     To  "  our  Father  in  heaven  "  —  in  its  esoteric  meaning. 

Inq.      Is  that  different  from  the  one  given  to  it  in  theology? 

Theo.  Entirely  so.  An  Occultist  or  a  Theosophist  addresses 
his  prayer  to  his  Father  zvhich  is  in  secret  (read,  and  try  to 
understand,  Matthew  vi,  6),  not  to  an  extra-cosmic  and 
therefore  finite  God ;  and  that  "  Father  "  is  in  man  himself. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  67 

Inq.     Then  you  make  of  man  a  God  ? 

ThEO.  Please  say  ''  God  "  and  not  "  a  God."  In  our  sense, 
the  inner  man  is  the  only  God  of  whom  we  can  have  cogniz- 
ance. And  how  can  this  be  otherwise  ?  Grant  us  our  postu- 
late that  God  is  a  universally  diffused,  infinite  principle,  and 
how  can  man  alone  escape  from  being  soaked  through  hy, 
and  in,  the  Deity?  We  call  our  "Father  in  heaven"  that 
deific  essence  of  which  we  are  cognizant  within  us,  in  our 
heart  and  spiritual  consciousness,  and  which  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  anthropomorphic  conception  we  may  form  of  it 
in  our  physical  brain  or  its  fancy :  "  Know  ye  not  that  ye 
are  the  temple  of  God,  and  that  the  spirit  of  (the  absolute) 
God  dwelleth  in  you?  ""°  Yet  let  no  man  anthropomorphize 
that  essence  in  us.  Let  no  Theosophist,  if  he  would  hold  to 
divine,  not  human  truth,  say  that  this  "  God  in  secret  "  listens 
to,  or  is  distinct  from,  either  finite  man  or  the  infinite  essence 
—  for  all  are  one.  Nor,  as  just  remarked,  that  a  prayer  is  a 
petition.  It  is  a  mystery,  rather ;  an  occult  process  by  which 
finite  and  conditioned  thoughts  and  desires,  unable  to  be 
assimilated  by  the  absolute  Spirit  which  is  unconditioned,  are 

20.  One  often  finds  in  Theosophical  writings  conflicting  statements  about  the  Christos 
principle  in  man.  Some  call  it  the  sixth  principle  (Buddhi),  others  the  sev- 
enth {Atman).  If  Christian  Theosophists  wish  to  make  use  of  such  expressions, 
let  them  be  made  philosophically  correct  by  following  the  analogy  of  the  old 
Wisdom-Religion  symbols.  We  say  that  Christos  is  not  only  one  of  the  three 
higher  principles,  but  all  the  three  regarded  as  a  Trinity.  This  Trinity  repre- 
sents the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Father  and  the  Son,  as  it  answers  to  abstract  spirit, 
differentiated  spirit,  and  embodied  spirit.  Krishna  and  Christ  are  philosophic- 
ally the  same  principle  under  its  triple  aspect  of  manifestation.  In  the  Bhag- 
avad-Glta  we  find  Krishna  calling  himself  indifferently  Atman,  the  Abstract 
Spirit,  Kshetrajna,  the  Higher  or  reincarnating  Ego,  and  the  Universal  Selk  — 
all  names  which,  when  transferred  from  the  universe  to  man,  answer  to  Atma, 
Buddhi  and  Manas.    The  Anuyita  is  full  of  the  same  doctrine. 


68  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

translated  into  spiritual  wills  and  the  will ;  such  process  being 
called  "  spiritual  transmutation."  The  intensity  of  our 
ardent  aspirations  changes  prayer  into  the  "  philosopher's 
stone,"  or  that  which  transmutes  lead  into  pure  gold.  The 
only  homogeneous  essence,  our  "  will-prayer,"  becomes  the 
active  or  creative  force,  producing  effects  according  to  our 
desire. 

Inq.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  prayer  is  an  occult  process  bringing  about 
physical  results? 

Theo.  I  do.  Will-power  becomes  a  living  power.  But  woe 
unto  those  Occultists  and  Theosophists  who,  instead  of  crush- 
ing out  the  desires  of  the  lower  personal  ego  or  physical  man, 
^md  saying  —  addressing  their  Higher  Spiritual  Ego,  im- 
mersed in  Atma-Buddhic  light  — "  Thy  will  be  done,  not 
mine,"  send  up  waves  of  will-power  for  selfish  or  unholy  pur- 
poses! For  this  is  black  magic,  abomination  and  spiritual 
sorcery.  Unfortunately,  all  this  is  the  favorite  occupation 
of  our  Christian  statesmen  and  generals,  especially  when  the 
latter  are  sending  two  armies  to  murder  each  other.  Both 
before  action  indulge  in  a  bit  of  such  sorcery,  when  severally 
offering  prayers  to  the  same  God  of  Hosts,  each  entreating 
his  help  to  cut  his  enemies'  throats. 

Inq.  David  prayed  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts  to  help  him  smite  the  Philistines 
and  slay  the  Syrians  and  the  Moabites,  and  "  the  Lord  preserved  David 
whithersoever  he  went."  In  that  we  only  follow  what  we  find  in  the 
Bible. 

TiiEO.  Of  course  you  do.  But  since  you  delight  in  calling 
yourselves  Christians,  not  Israelites  or  Jews,  as  far  as  we 
know,  why  do  you  not  rather  follow  that  which  Christ  says  ? 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  69 

And  he  distinctly  commands  you  not  to  follow  "  them  of  old 
times,"  or  the  Mosaic  law,  but  bids  you  do  as  he  tells  you, 
and  warns  those  who  would  take  the  sword  that  they  too 
will  perish  by  the  sword.  Christ  has  given  you  one  prayer, 
of  which  you  have  made  a  lip-prayer  and  a  boast,  and  which 
none  but  the  true  Occultist  understands.  In  it  you  say,  in 
your  dead-sense  meaning,  "  Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  for- 
give our  debtors  "  —  which  you  never  do.  Again,  he  told 
you  to  love  your  enemies  and  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you. 
It  is  surely  not  the  '*  meek  prophet  of  Nazareth  "  who  taught 
you  to  pray  to  your  *'  Father  "  to  slay  and  give  you  victory 
over  your  enemies!  This  is  why  we  reject  what  you  call 
"  prayers." 

Inq.  But  how  do  you  explain  the  universal  fact  that  all  nations  and  peoples 
have  prayed  to  and  worshiped  a  God  or  Gods?  Some  have  adored 
and  propitiated  devils  and  harmful  spirits,  but  this  only  proves  the  uni- 
versaHty  of  the  beHef  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer. 

Thko.  It  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  prayer  has  several  other 
meanings  besides  that  given  to  it  by  the  Christians.  It  means 
not  only  a  pleading  or  petition,  but  in  days  of  old  meant  far 
more,  an  invocation  and  incantation.  The  mantra,  or  the 
rhythmically  chanted  prayer  of  the  Hindus,  has  precisely  such 
a  meaning,  for  the  Brahmans  hold  themselves  higher  than 
the  common  devas  or  "  Gods."  A  prayer  may  be  an  appeal  or 
an  incantation  for  malediction  and  a  curse  —  as  in  the  case  of 
two  armies  praying  simultaneously  for  mutual  destruction  — 
as  much  as  for  blessing.  And  as  the  great  majority  of  peo- 
ple are  intensely  selfish,  and  pray  only  for  themselves,  asking 
to  be  given  their  *'  daily  bread  "  instead  of  working  for  it, 
and  begging  God  not  to  lead  them  "  into  temptation,"  but  to 


70  THE    KEY    TO    T  HBO  SO  PHY 

deliver  them  (the  memorialists  only)  from  evil,  the  result  is 
that  prayer,  as  now  understood,  is  doubly  pernicious:  (a)  it 
kills  in  man  self-reliance;  (^)  it  develops  in  him  a  still  more 
ferocious  selfishness  and  egotism  than  he  is  already  endowed 
with  by  nature.  I  repeat  that  we  believe  in  ''communion" 
and  simultaneous  action  in  unison  with  our  "  Father  in 
secret" ;  and,  in  rare  moments  of  ecstatic  bliss,  in  the  mingling 
of  our  higher  soul  with  the  universal  essence,  attracted  as  it 
is  toward  its  origin  and  centre  —  a  state  called  during  life 
Samadhi,  and  after  death.  Nirvana.  We  refuse  to  pray 
to  created  finite  beings  —  i.e.,  gods,  saints,  angels,  etc. — 
because  we  regard  it  as  idolatry;  we  cannot  pray  to  the 
ABSOLUTE  for  reasons  explained  before ;  therefore  we  try  to 
replace  fruitless  and  useless  prayer  by  meritorious  and  good- 
producing  actions. 

Inq.     Christians  would  call  this  pride  and  blasphemy.     Are  they  wrong? 

ThEo.  Entirely  so.  It  is  they,  on  the  contrary,  who  show  Sa- 
tanic pride  in  their  belief  that  the  Absolute  or  the  Infinite  — 
even  if  there  were  such  a  thing  as  the  possibility  of  any  rela- 
tion between  the  unconditioned  and  the  conditioned  —  will 
stoop  to  listen  to  every  foolish  or  egotistical  prayer.  And  it 
is  they,  again,  who  virtually  blaspheme  in  teaching  that  an 
Omniscient  and  Omnipotent  God  needs  uttered  prayers  to 
know  what  he  has  to  do!  This,  understood  esoterically,  is 
corroborated  by  both  Buddha  and  Jesus.  The  one  says: 
"  Seek  naught  from  the  helpless  Gods  —  pray  not !  hut  rather 
act;  for  darkness  will  not  brighten.  Ask  naught  from  si- 
lence, for  it  can  neither  speak  nor  hear."  And  the  other  — 
Jesus  —  recommends :  "  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name 


THE    KHY    TO    THBOSOPHY  n 

(that  of  Christos),  that  will  I  do."  Of  course  this  quotation, 
if  taken  in  its  literal  sense,  goes  against  our  argument.  But 
if  we  accept  it  esoterically,  with  the  full  knowledge  of  the 
meaning  of  the  term  Christos  —  which  to  us  represents  Atmd- 
Buddhi-Manas,  the  "SELF"  —  it  comes  to  this:  the  only 
God  we  must  recognize  and  pray  to,  or  rather  act  in  unison 
with,  is  that  Spirit  of  God  of  which  our  body  is  the  temple, 
and  in  which  it  dwelleth. 


PRAYER  KILLS  SELF-RELL4NCE 

Inq.     But  did  not  Christ  himself  pray  and  recommend  prayer? 

Theo.  It  is  so  recorded;  but  those  prayers  are  precisely  of 
that  kind  of  communion  just  mentioned  with  one's  "  Father 
in  secret."  Otherwise,  and  if  we  identify  Jesus  with  the  Uni- 
versal Deity,  there  would  be  something  too  absurdly  illogical 
in  the  inevitable  conclusion  that  he,  the  "  very  God  himself," 
prayed  to  himself,  and  separated  the  will  of  that  God  from 
his  own ! 

Inq.  One  argument  more;  an  argument,  moreover,  much  used  by  some 
Christians.  They  say,  "  I  feel  that  I  am  not  able  to  conquer  my  pas- 
sions and  weaknesses  in  my  own  strength.  But  when  I  pray  to  Jesus 
Christ  I  feel  that  he  gives  me  strength,  and  that  in  his  power  1  am 
able  to  conquer." 

Theo.  No  wonder.  If  "  Christ  Jesus  "  is  God,  and  one  inde- 
pendent and  separate  from  him  who  prays,  of  course  every- 
thing is,  and  iniist  be,  possible  to  "  almighty  God."  But 
then,  Where's  the  merit,  or  justice  either,  of  such  a  conquest? 
Why  should  the  pseudo-conqueror  be  rewarded  for  some- 


11  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

thing  done  which  has  cost  him  only  prayers?  Would  you, 
even  a  simple  mortal  man,  pay  your  laborer  a  full  day's  wage 
if  you  did  most  of  his  work  for  him,  he  sitting  under  an 
apple-tree  and  praying  to  you  to  do  so  all  the  while?  This 
idea  of  passing  one's  whole  life  in  moral  idleness,  and  having 
one's  hardest  work  and  duty  done  by  another  —  whether  God 
or  man  —  is  most  revolting  to  us,  as  it  is  most  degrading  to 
human  dignity. 

Inq.  Perhaps  so ;  yet  it  is  the  idea  of  trusting  in  a  personal  Savior  to  help 
and  strengthen  in  the  battle  of  life  which  is  the  fundamental  idea  of 
modern  Christianity.  And  there  is  no  doubt  that,  subjectively,  such 
belief  is  efficacious;  i.e.,  that  those  who  believe  do  feel  themselves 
helped  and  strengthened. 

Th^o.  Nor  is  there  any  more  doubt  that  some  patients  of 
"  Christian"  and  "  Mental  Scientists"— the  great  "Dcuiers"^^ 
—  are  also  sometimes  cured ;  nor  that  hypnotism  and  sugges- 
tion, psychology  and  even  mediumship,  will  produce  such  re- 
sults as  often,  if  not  oftener.  You  take  into  consideration, 
and  string  on  the  thread  of  your  argument,  successes  alone. 
And  how  about  ten  times  the  number  of  failures?  Surely 
you  will  not  presume  to  say  that  failure  is  unknown,  even 
with  a  sufficiency  of  blind  faith,  among  fanatical  Christians  ? 

Inq.  But  how  can  you  explain  those  cases  which  are  followed  by  full  suc- 
cess? Where  does  a  Theosophist  look  for  power  to  subdue  his  pass- 
ions and  selfishness? 

TiiEo.     To  his  Higher  Self,  the  divine  spirit  or  the  God  in  him, 

21.  A  new  sect  of  healers,  who,  by  disavowing  the  existence  of  anything  but  spirit, 
which  can  neither  suffer  nor  be  ill,  claim  to  cure  all  and  every  disease,  pro- 
vided the  patient  has  faith  that  what  he  denies  can  have  no  existence.  A  new 
form  of  self -hypnotism. 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  73 

and  to  his  Karma.  How  long  shall  we  have  to  repeat  over 
and  over  again  that  the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits,  the  nature 
of  the  cause  by  its  effects?  You  speak  of  subduing  passions 
and  becoming  good  through  and  with  the  help  of  God  or 
Christ.  We  ask,  where  do  you  find  more  virtuous,  guiltless 
people,  abstaining  from  sin  and  crime  —  in  Christendom  or 
Buddhism;  in  Christian  countries  or  in  heathen  lands? 
Statistics  are  there  to  give  the  answer  and  corroborate  our 
claims.  According  to  the  last  census  in  Ceylon  and  India, 
in  the  comparative  table  of  crimes  committed  by  Christians, 
Mohammedans,  Hindias,  Eurasians,  Buddhists,  etc.,  in  two 
millions  of  population  taken  at  random  from  each,  and  cover- 
ing the  misdemeanors  of  several  years,  the  proportion  of 
crimes  committed  by  the  Christian  stands  at  about  15  to  4 
committed  by  the  Buddhist  population."  No  Orientalist,  no 
historian  of  any  note,  or  traveler  in  Buddhist  lands,  from 
Bishop  Bigandet  and  Abbe  Hue  to  Sir  William  Hunter  and 
every  fair-minded  official,  will  fail  to  give  the  palm  of  virtue 
to  Buddhists  before  Christians.  Yet  the  former  (not  the 
true  Buddhist  Siamese  sect,  at  all  events)  do  not  believe  in 
either  God  or  a  future  reward  outside  of  this  earth.  They 
do  not  pray  —  neither  priests  nor  laymen.  "Pray!"  they 
would  exclaim  in  wonder ;  "  to  whom,  or  to  what  ?  " 

Inq.     Then  they  are  truly  Atheists. 

Theo.  Most  undeniably;  but  they  are  also  the  most  virtue- 
loving  and  virtue-keeping  men  in  the  whole  world.  Bud- 
dhism says:  Respect  the  religions  of  other  men  and  remain 
true  to  your  own;  but  Church  Christianity,  denouncing  all 

22.    See  Lucifer  for  April,  1888,  p.  147,  art.  "  Christian  Lectures  on  Buddhism." 


74  THE    KBY    To    THHOSOPHV 

the  gods  of  other  nations  as  devils,  would  doom  every  non- 
Christian  to  eternal  perdition. 

Inq,     Does  not  the  Buddhist  priesthood  do  the  same? 

Theo.     Never.     They  hold  too  much  to  the  wise  precept  found 
in  the  Dhammapada  to  do  so,  for  they  know  that: 

If  any  man,  whether  he  be  learned  or  not,  consider  himself  so  great 
as  to  despise  other  men,  he  is  Hke  a  bHnd  man  holding  a  candle  —  blind 
himself,  he  illumines  others. 


ON  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  HUMAN  SOUL 

Inq.  How,  then,  do  you  account  for  man  being  endowed  with  a  Spirit  and 
Soul?     Whence  these? 

Theo.  From  the  Universal  Soul;  certainly  not  bestowed  by  a 
personal  God.  Whence  the  moist  element  in  the  jelly-fish? 
From  the  Ocean  which  surrounds  it,  in  which  it  lives  and 
breathes  and  has  its  being,  and  whither  it  returns  when 
dissolved. 

Inq.  So  you  reject  the  teaching  that  Soul  is  given,  or  breathed  into  man, 
by  God? 

The:o.  We  are  obliged  to.  The  "  soul  "  spoken  of  in  Genesis 
(ii,  7)  is,  as  therein  stated,  the  "living  soul"  or  nephesh, 
the  vital,  animal  soul  with  which  God  —  we  say  "nature" 
and  immntahle  lazv  —  endows  man  like  every  animal.  It  is 
not  at  all  the  thinking  Soul  or  mind;  least  of  all  is  it  the 
immortal  Spirit. 

Inq.  Well,  let  us  put  it  otherwise:  is  it  God  who  endows  man  with  a  hu- 
man rational  Soul  and  immortal  Spirit? 


THB    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  75 

ThEo.  Again,  in  the  way  you  put  the  question,  we  must  object 
to  it.  Since  we  believe  in  no  personal  God,  how  can  we  be- 
heve  that  he  endows  man  with  anything?  But  granting, 
for  the  sake  of  argument,  a  God  who  takes  upon  himself  the 
risk  of  creating  a  new  Soul  for  every  new-born  babe,  all  that 
can  be  said  is  that  such  a  God  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  him- 
self endowed  with  any  wisdom  or  prevision.  Certain  other 
difficulties,  and  the  impossibility  of  reconciling  this  with  the 
claims  made  for  the  mercy,  justice,  equity  and  omniscience 
of  that  God,  are  so  many  deadly  reefs  on  which  this  theo- 
logical dogma  is  daily  and  hourly  broken. 

Inq.     What  do  you  mean?     What  difficulties? 

ThEO.  I  am  thinking  of  an  unanswerable  argument  ofifered 
once  in  my  presence  by  a  Sinhalese  Buddhist  priest,  a  famous 
preacher,  to  a  Christian  missionary  —  one  in  no  way  ignorant 
or  unprepared  for  the  public  discussion  during  which  it  was 
advanced.  It  was  near  Colombo,  and  the  missionary  had 
challenged  the  priest  Megittawatti  to  give  his  reasons  why 
the  Christian  God  should  not  be  accepted  by  the  "  heathen." 
Well,  the  missionary  came  out  of  that  memorable  discussion 
second-best,  as  usual. 

Inq.     I  should  be  glad  to  learn  in  what  way. 

ThEo.  Simply  this :  the  Buddhist  priest  premised  by  asking  the 
padre  whether  his  God  had  given  commandments  to  Moses 
for  men  only  to  keep,  but  to  be  broken  by  God  himself.  The 
missionary  denied  the  supposition  indignantly.  "  Well,"  said 
his  opponent,  "you  tell  us  that  God  makes  no  exceptions  to 
this  rule,  and  that  no  Soul  can  be  born  without  his  will.  Now 
God  forbids  adultery,  among  other  things,  and  yet  you  say 


V 


^\sL^.^X<y> 


^     -^     OF   THE 


\ 


76  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

in  the  same  breath  that  it  is  he  who  creates  every  babe  born, 
and  he  who  endows  it  with  a  Soul.  Are  we  then  to  under- 
stand that  the  milHons  of  children  born  in  crime  and  adultery 
are  your  God's  work?  that  your  God  forbids  and  punishes 
the  breaking  of  his  laws,  and  that,  nevertheless,  he  creates 
daily  and  hourly  souls  for  just  such  children^  According  to 
the  simplest  logic,  your  God  is  an  accomplice  in  the  crime; 
since,  but  for  his  help  and  interference,  no  such  children  of 
lust  could  be  born.  Where  is  the  justice  of  punishing  not 
only  the  guilty  parents,  but  even  the  innocent  babe,  for  that 
which  is  done  by  that  very  God,  whom  yet  you  exonerate 
from  any  guilt  himself?"  The  missionary  looked  at  his 
watch  and  suddenly  found  it  was  getting  too  late  for  further 
discussion. 

Inq.  You  forget  that  all  such  inexplicable  cases  are  mysteries,  and  that 
we  are  forbidden  by  our  religion  to  pry  into  the  mysteries  of  God. 

TnE:o.  No,  we  do  not  forget,  but  simply  reject  such  impossi- 
bilities. Nor  do  we  want  you  to  believe  as  we  do.  We  only 
answer  the  questions  you  ask.  We  have,  however,  another 
name  for  your  "  niA^steries." 


THE  BUDDHIST  TEACHINGS  ON  THE  ABOVE 

Inq.     What  does  Buddhism  teach  with  regard  to  the  Soul? 

ThEo.  It  depends  whether  you  mean  exoteric,  popular  Bud- 
dhism, or  its  esoteric  teachings.  According  to  the  former 
man  is  considered  as  subject  to  change,  and  hence  as  far  as 
he  is  material,  impermanent.  But  when  we  come  to  the  ques- 
tion that  the  new  personality  in  each  succeeding  rebirth  is  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  11 

aggregate  of  skandhas,  or  the  attributes  of  the  old  person- 
ahty,  and  ask  whether  this  new  aggregation  of  skandhas  is  a 
new  being  hkewise,  in  which  nothing  has  remained  of  the 
last,  the  reply  is  abstruse  metaphysics,  and  plainly  does  not 
express  this  disbelief  in  soul  by  any  means. 

Inq.     Is  not  something  like  this  spoken  of  in  esoteric  Budhismf 

Theo.  It  is ;  for  this  teaching  belongs  both  to  esoteric  Budhism, 
or  Secret  Wisdom,  and  to  exoteric  Buddhism,  or  the  relig- 
ious philosophy  of  Gautama  Buddha. 

Inq.  But  we  are  distinctly  told  that  most  of  the  Buddhists  do  not  believe 
in  the  Soul's  immortality. 

ThEO.  Nor  do  we,  if  you  mean  by  Soul  the  personal  Ego,  or 
life-soul  —  nephesh.  But  every  learned  Buddhist  [as  also 
ourselves]  believes  in  the  individual  or  divine  Ego.  Those 
who  do  not,  err  in  their  judgment;  they  are  as  mistaken  on 
this  point  as  those  Christians  who  mistake  the  theological 
interpolations  of  the  later  editors  of  the  Gospels  about  dam- 
nation and  hell-fire  for  verbatim  utterances  of  Jesus.  Nei- 
ther Buddha  nor  "  Christ "  ever  wrote  anything  themselves, 
but  both  spoke  in  allegories  and  used  "  dark  sayings,"  as  all 
true  Initiates  did,  and  will  do  for  a  long  time  yet  to  come. 
Both  scriptures  treat  of  all  such  metaphysical  questions  very 
cautiously,  and  both  Buddhist  and  Christian  records  sin  by 
that  excess  of  exotericism,  the  dead-letter  meaning  far  over- 
shooting the  mark  in  both  cases. 

Inq.  Do  you  mean  to  suggest  that  neither  the  teachings  of  Buddha  nor 
those  of  Christ  have  been  heretofore  rightly  understood? 

Theo.     What  I  mean  is  just  as  you  say.     Both  Gospels  —  the 


7b  the  key  To  theosophy 

Buddhist  and  the  Christian  —  were  preached  with  the  same 
object  in  view.  Both  reformers  were  ardent  philanthropists 
and  practical  altruists,  preaching  most  unmistakably  social 
betterment  of  the  noblest  and  highest  type,  self-sacrifice  to 
the  bitter  end.  "  Let  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  fall  upon 
me,  that  I  may  relieve  man's  misery  and  suffering ! "  cries 
Buddha.  "I  would  not  let  one  cry  whom  I  could  save!" 
exclaims  the  Prince-beggar,  clad  in  the  refuse  rags  of  the 
burial  grounds.  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy-laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest,"  is  the  appeal  to  the 
poor  and  the  disinherited  made  by  the  "  Man  of  Sorrows," 
who  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  The  teachings  of  both 
are  boundless  love  for  humanity,  charity,  forgiveness  of  in- 
jury, forgetfulness  of  self,  and  pity  for  the  deluded  masses; 
both  show  the  same  contempt  for  riches,  and  make  no  differ- 
ence between  mcum  and  tiium.  Their  desire  was,  without 
revealing  to  all  the  sacred  mysteries  of  initiation,  to  give  the 
ignorant  and  the  misled,  whose  burden  in  life  was  too  heavy 
for  them,  hope  enough  and  an  inkling  into  the  truth  sufficient 
to  support  them  in  their  heaviest  hours.  But  the  object  of 
both  reformers  was  frustrated,  owing  to  excess  of  zeal  of 
their  later  followers.  The  words  of  the  Masters  having 
been  misunderstood  and  misinterpreted,  behold  the  conse- 
quences ! 

Inq.  But  surely  Buddha  must  have  repudiated  the  soul's  immortality  if  all 
the  Orientalists  and  his  own  Priests  say  so ! 

ThEO.  The  Arhats  began  by  following  the  policy  of  their  Mas- 
ter, and  the  majority  of  the  priests  who  followed  them  were 
not  initiated,  just  as  in  Christianity;  and  so,  little  by  little, 
the  great  esoteric  truths  became  almost  lost.     A  proof  in 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  79 

point  is  that,  out  of  the  two  existing  sects  in  Ceylon,  the 
Siamese  beheves  death  to  be  the  absolute  annihilation  of 
individuality  and  personality,  and  the  other  explains  Nirvana 
as  we  Theosophists  do. 

Inq.  But  why,  in  that  case,  do  Buddhism  and  Christianity  represent  the 
two  opposite  poles  of  such  beHef  ? 

Theo.  Because  the  conditions  under  which  they  were  preached 
were  not  the  same.  In  India  the  Brahmans,  jealous  of  their 
superior  knowledge,  and  excluding  from  it  every  caste  save 
their  own,  had  driven  millions  of  men  into  idolatry  and  al- 
most fetishism.  Buddha  had  to  give  the  death-blow  to  an 
exuberance  of  unhealthy  fancy  and  fanatical  superstition 
resulting  from  ignorance,  such  as  has  rarely  been  known 
before  or  after.  Better  a  philosophical  atheism  than  such 
ignorant  worship  for  those 

Who  cry  upon  their  gods  and  are  not  heard 
Or  are  not  heeded, 

and  who  live  and  die  in  mental  despair.  He  had  to  arrest 
first  of  all  this  muddy  torrent  of  superstition ;  to  uproot  errors 
before  he  gave  out  the  truth.  And  as  he  could  not  give  out 
all,  for  the  same  good  reason  as  Jesus  —  who  reminds  his 
disciples  that  the  mysteries  of  heaven  are  not  for  the  unin- 
telligent masses,  but  for  the  elect  alone,  and  therefore  he 
spoke  to  the  people  in  parables  (Matt,  xiii,  10,  11)  — so  his 
caution  led  Buddha  to  conceal  too  much.  He  even  refused 
to  say  to  the  monk  Vacchagotta  whether  there  was  or  was 
not  an  Ego  in  man.  When  pressed  to  answer,  "  the  Exalted 
one  maintained  silence." 

Buddha  gives  his  initiated  disciple  Ananda,  who  inquires 


80  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

for  the  reason  of  this  silence,  a  plain  and  unequivocal  answer 
in  the  dialogue  translated  by  Oldenburg  from  the  Samyuttaka 
Nikdya: 

If  I,  Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  asked  me, 
"  Is  there  the  Ego?  "  had  answered,  "  The  Ego  is,"  then  that,  Ananda, 
would  have  confirmed  the  doctrine  of  the  Samanas  and  Brahmanas, 
who  beUeved  in  permanence.  If  I,  Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk 
Vacchagotta  asked  me,  "  Is  there  not  the  Ego  ?"  had  answered,  "  The 
Ego  is  not,"  then  that,  Ananda,  would  have  confirmed  the  doctrine  of 
those  who  beHeved  in  annihilation.  If  I,  Ananda,  when  the  wander- 
ing monk  Vacchagotta  asked  me,  "  Is  there  the  Ego  ?"  had  answered, 
"  The  Ego  is,"  would  that  have  served  my  end,  Ananda,  by  producing 
in  him  the  knowledge,  all  existences  (dhamnia)  are  non-ego?  But  if  I, 
Ananda,  had  answered,  "  The  Ego  is  not,"  then  that,  Ananda,  would 
only  have  caused  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  to  be  thrown  from 
one  bewilderment  to  another:  "  My  Ego,  did  it  not  exist  before?  But 
now  it  exists  no  longer !" 

This  shows  better  than  anything  that  Gautama  Buddha 
withheld  such  difficult  metaphysical  doctrines  from  the  masses 
in  order  not  to  perplex  them  more.  What  he  meant  was 
the  difference  between  the  personal  temporary  Ego  and  the 
Higher  Self,  which  sheds  its  light  on  the  imperishable  Ego, 
the  spiritual  "  I  "  of  man. 

Inq.     This  refers  to  Gautama,  but  in  what  way  does  it  touch  the  Gospels? 

ThEO.  Read  history  and  think  over  it.  At  the  time  the  events 
narrated  in  the  Gospels  are  alleged  to  have  happened  there 
was  a  similar  intellectual  fermentation  taking  place  in  the 
whole  civilized  world,  only  with  opposite  results  in  the  East 
and  the  West.  The  old  gods  were  dying  out.  While  the 
civilized  classes  drifted,  in  the  train  of  the  unbelieving  Sad- 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  81 

ducees,  into  materialistic  negations  and  mere  dead-letter 
Mosaic  form  in  Palestine,  and  into  moral  dissolution  in 
Rome,  the  lowest  and  poorest  classes  ran  after  sorcery  and 
strange  gods,  or  became  hypocrites  or  worse.  Once  more 
the  time  for  a  spiritual  reform  had  arrived.  The  cruel, 
anthropomorphic  and  jealous  God  of  the  Jews,  with  his  san- 
guinary laws  of  "  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a 
tooth,"  of  the  shedding  of  blood  and  animal  sacrifice,  had 
to  be  relegated  to  a  secondary  place  and  replaced  by  the 
merciful  ''  Father  in  secret."  The  latter  had  to  be  shown, 
not  as  an  extra-Cosmic  God,  but  as  a  divine  Savior  of  the 
•man  of  flesh,  enshrined  in  his  own  heart  and  soul,  in  the  poor 
as  in  the  rich.  No  more  here  than  in  India  could  the  secrets 
of  initiation  be  divulged,  lest  by  giving  that  which  is  holy  to 
the  dogs,  and  casting  pearls  before  swine,  both  the  Revealer 
and  the  things  revealed  should  be  trodden  underfoot.  Thus 
the  reticence  of  both  Buddha  and  Jesus  —  whether  the  latter 
lived  out  the  historic  period  allotted  to  him  or  not,  and  who 
equally  abstained  from  revealing  plainly  the  mysteries  of 
Life  and  Death  —  led  in  the  one  case  to  the  blank  negations 
of  Southern  Buddhism,  and  in  the  other  to  the  three  clashing 
forms  of  the  Christian  Church  and  the  two  hundred  sects  in 
Protestant  England  alope. 


82  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


VI 

THEOSOPHICAL  TEACHINGS  AS  TO  NATURE 

AND  MAN 


THE  UNITY  OF  ALL  IN  ALL 


Inq.  Having  told  me  what  God,  the  soul  and  man  are  not,  in  your  views, 
can  you  inform  me  what  they  are,  according  to  your  teachings  ? 

ThKO.  In  their  origin  and  in  eternity  the  three,  Hke  the  uni- 
verse and  all  therein,  are  one  with  the  absolute  Unity,  the  un- 
knowable deific  essence  I  spoke  about  some  time  back.  We 
believe  in  no  creation,  but  in  the  periodical  and  consecutive 
appearances  of  the  universe  from  the  subjective  on  to  the 
objective  plane  of  being,  at  regular  intervals  of  time,  covering 
periods  of  immense  duration. 

Inq.     Can  you  elaborate  the  subject? 

ThEo.  Take  as  a  first  comparison,  and  a  help  toward  a  more 
correct  conception,  the  solar  year;  and  as  a  second,  the  two 
halves  of  that  year,  producing  each  a  day  and  a  night  of  six 
months'  duration  at  the  North  Pole.  Now  imagine,  if  you 
can,  instead  of  a  solar  year  of  365  days,  ETERNITY.  Let 
the  sun  represent  the  universe,  and  the  polar  days  and  nights 
of  six  months  each  days  and  nights  lasting  each  182  trillions 
and  quadrillions  of  years,  instead  of  182  days  each.    As  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  83 

sun  rises  every  morning  on  our  objective  horizon  out  of  its 
(to  us)  subjective  and  antipodal  space,  so  does  the  Universe 
emerge  periodically  on  the  plane  of  objectivity,  issuing  from 
that  of  subjectivity  —  the  antipodes  of  the  former.  This  is 
the  "  Cycle  of  Life."  And  as  the  sun  disappears  from  our 
horizon,  so  does  the  Universe  disappear  at  regular  periods, 
when  the  "  Universal  Night  "  sets  in.  The  Hindus  call  such 
alternations  the  "  Days  and  Nights  of  Brahma,"  or  the  times 
of  Manvantara  and  Pralaya  (dissolution).  The  Westerns 
may  call  them  Universal  Days  and  Nights  if  they  prefer. 
During  the  latter  (the  Nights)  All  is  in  All;  every  atom  is 
resolved  into  one  Homogeneity. 


EVOLUTION  AND  ILLUSION 

Inq.     But  who  is  it  that  each  time  creates  the  universe? 

Theo.  No  one  creates  it.  Science  would  call  the  process  evolu- 
tion; the  pre-Christian  philosophers  and  the  Orientalists 
called  it  emanation ;  we  Occultists  and  Theosophists  see  in  it 
the  only  universal  and  eternal  Reality  casting  a  periodical 
reflection  of  Itself  on  the  infinite  spatial  depths.  This  re- 
flection, which  you  regard  as  the  objective  material  universe, 
we  consider  as  a  temporary  illusion  and  nothing  else.  That 
alone  which  is  eternal  is  real. 

Inq.     At  that  rate,  you  and  I  are  also  illusions. 

Theo.  As  flitting  personalities  —  today  one  person,  tomorrow 
another  —  we  are.  Would  you  call  the  sudden  flashes  of  the 
aurora  borealis  —  the  Northern  lights  —  a  "reality,"  though 


84  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV 

it  is  as  real  as  can  be  while  you  look  at  it?  Certainly  not; 
it  is  the  cause  that  produces  it,  if  permanent  and  eternal, 
which  is  the  only  reality,  while  the  effect  is  but  a  passing 
illusion. 

Inq.  All  this  does  not  explain  to  me  how  this  illusion  called  the  universe 
originates ;  how  the  conscious  to  he  proceeds  to  manifest  itself  from 
the  unconsciousness  that  is. 

Theo.  It  is  unconsciousness  only  to  our  finite  consciousness. 
Verily  may  we  paraphrase  St.  John  (i,  5),  and  say,  "And 
(Absolute)  light  (which  is  darkness  to  us)  shineth  in  dark- 
ness (which  is  illusionary  material  light);  and  the  darkness 
comprehendeth  it  not."  This  absolute  light  is  also  absolute 
and  immutable  Law.  Whether  by  radiation  or  emanation  — 
we  need  not  quarrel  over  terms  —  the  universe  passes  out  of 
its  homogeneous  subjectivity  on  to  the  first  plane  of  mani- 
festation; of  which  planes  there  are  seven,  we  are  taught. 
With  each  plane  it  becomes  more  dense  and  material  until  it 
reaches  this  our  plane,  on  which  the  only  world  approxim- 
ately known  and  understood  in  its  physical  composition  by 
science  is  the  planetary  or  solar  system  —  one  sni  generis, 
we  are  told. 

Inq.     What  do  you  mean  by  sui  generis? 

The:o.  I  mean  that,  though  the  fundamental  law  and  the  uni- 
versal working  of  laws  of  Nature  are  uniform,  still  our  solar 
system  —  like  every  other  such  system  in  the  millions  of 
others  in  Cosmos,  and  even  our  Earth  —  has  its  own  pro- 
gram of  manifestations,  differing  from  the  respective  pro- 
grams of  all  others.  We  speak  of  the  inhabitants  of  other 
planets,  and  imagine  that  if  they  are  men  —  i.  c.,  thinking 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  85 

entities  —  they  must  be  as  we  are.  The  fancy  of  poets  and 
painters  and  sculptors  never  fails  to  represent  even  the  angels 
as  a  beautiful  copy  of  man  —  plus  wings.  We  say  that  all 
this  is  an  error  and  a  delusion ;  because,  if  on  this  little  earth 
alone  one  finds  such  a  diversity  in  its  flora,  fauna  and  man- 
kind —  from  the  seaweed  to  the  cedar  of  Lebanon,  from  the 
jellyfish  to  the  elephant,  from  the  Bushman  and  negro  to  the 
Apollo  Belvedere  —  alter  the  conditions,  cosmic  and  plan- 
etary, and  there  must  be  as  a  result  quite  a  different  flora, 
fauna  and  mankind.  The  same  laws  will  fashion  quite  a 
different  set  of  things  and  beings  even  on  this  our  plane,  in- 
cluding in  it  all  our  planets.  How  much  more  diff'erent,  then, 
must  be  external  nature  in  other  solar  systems;  and  how 
foolish  is  it  to  judge  of  other  stars  and  worlds  and  human 
beings  by  our  own,  as  physical  science  does ! 

Inq.     But  what  are  your  data  for  this  assertion? 

Theo.  What  science  in  general  will  never  accept  as  proof  — 
the  cumulative  testimony  of  an  endless  series  of  Seers  who 
have  testified  to  this  fact.  Their  spiritual  visions  —  real  ex- 
plorations by  and  through  psychic  and  spiritual  senses  un- 
trammeled  by  blind  flesh  —  have  been  systematically  checked 
and  compared  one  with  the  other,  and  their  nature  sifted. 
All  that  was  not  corroborated  by  unanimous  and  collective 
experience  was  rejected,  while  that  only  was  recorded  as  es- 
tablished truth  which,  in  various  ages,  under  different  climes, 
and  throughout  an  untold  series  of  incessant  observations, 
was  found  to  agree  and  receive  constantly  further  corrobor- 
ation. The  methods  used  by  our  scholars  and  students  of 
the  psychospiritual  sciences  do  not  differ  from  those  of  stud- 


86  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

ents  of  the  natural  and  physical  sciences,  as  you  may  see. 
Only  our  fields  of  research  are  on  two  different  planes,  and 
our  instruments  are  made  by  no  human  hands;  for  which 
reason,  perchance,  they  are  but  the  more  reliable.  The 
retorts,  accumulators  and  microscopes  of  the  chemist  and 
naturalist  may  get  out  of  order ;  the  telescope  and  the  astron- 
omer's horological  instruments  may  get  spoiled;  our  record- 
ing instruments  are  beyond  the  influence  of  weather  or  the 
elements. 

Inq.     And  therefore  you  have  impUcit  faith  in  them? 

Thko.  Faith  is  a  word  not  to  be  found  in  Theosophical  diction- 
aries ;  we  say  knozvledge  based  on  observation  and  experience. 
There  is  this  difference,  however :  that  while  the  observation 
and  experience  of  physical  science  lead  the  scientists  to  about 
as  many  "working  hypotheses"  as  there  are  minds  to  evolve 
them,  our  knozvledge  consents  to  add  to  its  lore  only  those 
facts  which  have  become  undeniable  and  which  are  fully  and 
absolutely  demonstrated.  We  have  no  two  beliefs  or  hypo- 
theses on  the  same  subject. 

Inq.  Is  it  on  such  data  that  you  came  to  accept  the  strange  theories  we 
find  in  some  of  the  earher  Theosophical  books  ? 

ThKO.  Just  SO.  These  theories  may  be  slightly  incorrect  in 
their  minor  details,  and  even  faulty  in  their  exposition  by 
lay  students ;  they  are  facts  in  nature,  nevertheless,  and  come 
nearer  the  truth  than  any  scientific  hypothesis. 


THB   KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  87 

ON  THE  SEPTENARY  CONSTITUTION  OF  OUR  PLANET 

Inq.     I  understand  that  you  describe  our  earth  as  forming  part  of  a  chain  of 

earths? 
Theo.     We  do.     But  the  other  six  "earths"  or  globes  are  not  on 

the  same  plane  of  objectivity  as  our  earth  is;  therefore  we 

can  not  see  them. 

Inq.     Is  that  on  account  of  the  great  distance? 

Thko.  Not  at  all ;  for  we  see  with  our  naked  eye  not  only  plan- 
ets, but  even  stars  at  immeasurably  greater  distances;  but  it 
is  owing  to  these  six  globes  being  outside  our  physical  means 
of  perception  or  plane  of  being.  It  is  not  only  that  their 
material  density,  weight  and  fabric  are  entirely  different 
from  those  of  our  earth  and  the  other  known  planets ;  but  they 
are  (to  us)  in  an  entirely  dift'erent  layer  of  space,  so  to  speak 
—  a  layer  not  to  be  perceived  or  felt  by  our  physical  senses. 
And  when  I  say  "  layer,"  please  do  not  allow  your  fancy  to 
suggest  to  you  layers  like  strata  or  beds  laid  one  over  the 
other ;  for  this  would  only  lead  to  another  absurd  misconcep- 
tion. What  I  mean  by  ''layer"  is  that  plane  of  infinite  space 
which  by  its  nature  cannot  fall  under  our  ordinary  waking 
perceptions,  whether  mental  or  physical,  but  which  exists  in 
Nature  outside  of  our  normal  mentality  or  consciousness, 
outside  of  our  three-dimensional  space,  and  outside  of  our 
division  of  time.  Each  of  the  seven  fundamental  planes  (or 
layers)  in  space  —  of  course  as  a  whole,  as  the  pure  space  of 
Locke's  definition,  not  as  our  finite  space  —  has  its  own  ob- 
jectivity and  subjectivity,  its  own  space  and  time,  its  own 
consciousness  and  set  of  senses.  But  all  this  will  be  hardly 
comprehensible  to  one  trained  in  the  modern  ways  of  thought. 


88  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Inq,  What  do  you  mean  by  a  different  set  of  senses?  Is  there  anything 
on  our  human  plane  that  you  could  bring  as  an  illustration  of  what  you 
say,  just  to  give  a  clearer  idea  of  what  you  may  mean  by  this  variety  of 
senses,  spaces  and  respective  perceptions? 

Theo.  None,  except,  perhaps,  that  which  for  Science  would 
be  rather  a  handy  peg  on  which  to  hang  a  counter-argument. 
We  have  a  different  set  of  senses  in  dream-Hfe,  have  we  not? 
We  feel,  talk,  hear,  see,  taste  and  function  in  general  on  a 
different  plane,  the  change  of  state  of  our  consciousness  being 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  a  series  of  acts  and  events  embrac- 
ing years,  as  we  think,  passes  ideally  through  our  mind  in  one 
instant.  W^ell,  that  extreme  rapidity  of  our  mental  opera- 
tions in  dreams,  and  the  perfect  naturalness,  for  the  time 
being,  of  all  the  other  functions,  show  us  that  we  are  on 
quite  another  plane.  Our  philosophy  teaches  us  that  as  there 
are  seven  fundamental  forces  in  nature,  and  seven  planes  of 
being,  so  there  are  seven  states  of  consciousness  in  which 
man  can  live,  think,  remember  and  have  his  being.  To  enu- 
merate these  here  is  impossible,  and  for  this  one  has  to  turn 
to  the  study  of  Eastern  metaphysics.  But  in  these  two  states 
—  the  waking  and  the  dreaming  —  every  ordinary  mortal, 
from  a  learned  philosopher  down  to  a  poor  untutored  savage, 
has  a  good  proof  that  such  states  differ. 

Inq.  You  do  not  accept,  then,  the  well-known  explanations  of  biology 
and  physiology  to  account  for  the  dream-state? 

Theo.  We  do  not.  We  reject  even  the  hypotheses  of  your  psy- 
chologists, preferring  the  teachings  of  Eastern  Wisdom. 
Believing  in  seven  planes  of  Kosmic  being  and  states  of  Con- 
sciousness, with  regard  to  the  Universe  or  the  Macrocosm, 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  89 

we  stop  at  the  fourth  plane,  finding  it  impossible  to  go  with 
any  degree  of  certainty  beyond.  But  with  respect  to  the 
Microcosm,  or  man,  we  speculate  freely  on  his  seven  states 
and  principles. 

Inq.     How  do  you  explain  these? 

Thdo.  We  find,  first  of  all,  two  distinct  beings  in  man  —  the 
spiritual  and  the  physical;  the  man  who  thinks  and  the  man 
who  records  as  much  of  these  thoughts  as  he  is  able  to  assim- 
ilate. Therefore  we  divide  him  into  two  distinct  natures  — 
the  upper  or  the  spiritual  being,  composed  of  three  "prin- 
ciples" or  aspects;  and  the  lower  or  the  physical  quaternary, 
composed  of  four  —  in  all  seven. 


THE  SEPTENARY  NATURE  OF  MAN 

Inq.     Is  it  what  we  call  Spirit  and  Soul  and  the  man  of  flesh? 

Theo.  It  is  not.  That  is  the  old  Platonic  division.  Plato  was 
an  Initiate,  and  therefore  could  not  go  into  forbidden  details ; 
but  he  who  is  acquainted  with  the  archaic  doctrine  finds  the 
seven  in  Plato's  various  combinations  of  Soul  and  Spirit. 
He  regarded  man  as  constituted  of  two  parts  —  one  eternal, 
formed  of  the  same  essence  as  the  Absoluteness;  the  other 
mortal  and  corruptible,  deriving  its  constituent  parts  from 
the  minor  "created"  Gods.  Man  is  composed,  he  shows,  of 
(1)  a  mortal  body;  (2)  an  immortal  principle;  and  (3)  a 
"  separate  mortal  kind  of  Soul."  It  is  that  which  we  re- 
spectively call  the  physical  man,  the  Spiritual  Soul  or  Spirit 
(iioiis),  and  the  animal  soul  (psuelie).     This  is  the  division 


90 


THB   KBY    TO    THHOSOPHY 


adopted  by  Paul,  another  Initiate,  who  maintains  that  there 
is  a  psychical  body  which  is  sown  in  the  corruptible  (astral  or 
physical  body),  and  a  spiritual  body  that  is  raised  in  incor- 
ruptible substance.  Even  James  (iii,  15)  corroborates  the 
same  by  saying  that  the  "wisdom"  (of  our  lower  soul)  des- 
cendeth  not  from  above,  but  is  terrestrial,  "  psychical,"  "  de- 
moniacal," {z'ide  Greek  text),  while  the  other  is  heavenly 
wisdom.  Now,  so  plain  is  it  that  Plato,  and  even  Pytha- 
goras, while  speaking  but  of  three  "principles,"  give  them 
seven  separate  functions  in  their  various  combinations,  that 
if  we  contrast  our  teachings  this  will  become  quite  plain. 
Let  us  take  a  cursory  view  of  these  seven  aspects  by  drawing 
a  table. 


THEOSOPHICAL  DIVISION 


Sanskrit  Terms 


a 

W 

o 
1-4 
w 

n 


(a)  Rupa,   or   Sthula 
Sharira. 

(b)  Prana. 


(c)  Linga  Sharira. 

(d)  Kama   Rupa. 


Exoteric    Meaning 


(o)   Physical  body. 


(b)    Life,      or      vital 
principle. 


(c)  Astral  body. 


(d)  The  seat  of  ani- 
mal desires  and  pas- 
sions. 


Explanatory 


(a)  Is  the  vehicle  of  all  the 
other  "principles"  during  life. 

(b)  Necessary  only  to  a,  c,  d, 
and  the  functions  of  the  low- 
er Manas,  which  embrace  all 
those  limited  to  the  (phys- 
ical)   brain. 

(c)  The  Double,  the  phantom 
body. 

(d)  This  is  the  center  of  the 
animal  man,  where  lies  the 
line  of  demarcation  which 
separates  the  mortal  man 
from  the  immortal  entity. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


91 


Sanskrit  Terms 


Eh 


{e)  Manas  —  a  dual 
principle  in  its  func- 
tions. 


(/)  Buddhi. 
ig)  Atma. 


Exoteric    Meaning 


{e)  Mind,  intellig- 
ence ;  the  higher  hu- 
man mind,  whose 
light,  or  radiation, 
links  the  Monad, 
for  the  lifetime,  to 
the  mortal  man. 


(/)     The    Spiritual 
Soul. 

{g)   Spirit. 


Explanatory 


{e)  The  future  state  and  the 
Karmic  destiny  of  man  de- 
pend on  whether  Manas  grav- 
itates more  downward  to 
Kama  Rijpa,  the  seat  of  the 
animal  passions,  or  upward 
to  Buddhi,  the  Spiritual  Ego. 
In  the  latter  case,  the  higher 
consciousness  of  the  individ- 
ual Spiritual  aspirations  of 
mind  (Manas),  assimilating 
Buddhi,  is  absorbed  by  it  and 
forms  the  Ego,  which  goes 
into    Devachanic   bliss. 23 

(/)  The  vehicle  of  pure  uni- 
versal  spirit. 

ig)  One  with  the  Absolute, 
as   its   radiation. 


Now  what  does  Plato  teach?  He  speaks  of  the  interior 
man  as  constituted  of  two  parts  —  one  immutable  and  always 
the  same,  formed  of  the  same  substance  as  Deity,  and  the 
other  mortal  and  corruptible.  These  two  parts  are  found  in 
the  upper  Triad  and  the  lower  Quaternary  of  our  table.  He 
explains  that  when  the  Soul  (psuche)  "allies  herself  to  the 


23.  In  some  Theosophical  writings,  by  students,  d,  e  and  /  are  respectively  called  the 
animal,  the  human,  and  the  spiritual  souls,  which  answers  as  well.  Though  the 
principles  are  usually  numbered,  this  is  strictly  speaking,  useless.  The  dual 
Monad  alone  (Atma-Buddhi)  is  susceptible  of  being  thought  of  as  the  two 
highest  numbers  (the  6th  and  7th).  As  to  all  others,  since  that  "principle"  only 
which  is  predominant  in  man  has  to  be  considered  as  the  first  and  foremost,  no 
numeration  is  possible  as  a  general  rule.  In  some  men  it  is  the  higher  Intelli- 
gence (Manas,  or  the  5th)  which  dominates  the  rest;  in  others  it  is  the  animal 
soul  (Kama  Riipa)  that  reigns  supreme,  exhibiting  the  most  bestial  instincts,  etc. 


92  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

nous  (divine  spirit  or  substance^"*),  she  does  everything  aright 
and  f ehcitously" ;  but  the  case  is  otherwise  when  she  attaches 
herself  to  anoia  (folly,  or  the  irrational  animal  soul).  Here, 
then,  we  have  Manas,  or  the  Soul  in  general,  in  its  two  as- 
pects :  when  attaching  itself  to  anoia  (our  Kama  Riapa,  or  the 
"animal  soul,"  as  sometimes  described)  it  runs  toward  en- 
tire annihilation,  as  far  as  the  personal  Ego  is  concerned; 
when  allying  itself  to  the  nous  (Atma-Buddhi)  it  merges 
into  the  immortal,  imperishable  Ego,  and  then  its  spiritual 
consciousness  of  the  personal  that  n^as,  becomes  immortal. 


THE  DISTINCTION  BETWEEN  SOUL  AND  SPIRIT 

Inq.  Do  you  really  teach,  as  you  are  accused  of  doing  by  some  Spirit- 
ualists and  French  Spiritists,  the  annihilation  of  every  personality? 

ThEo.  We  do  not.  Our  opponents  have  started  the  nonsensical 
charge  because  this  question  of  duality  —  the  individuality 
of  the  Divine  Ego  and  the  personality  of  the  human  animal 
—  involves  that  of  the  possibility  of  the  real  immortal  Ego 
appearing  in  seance-rooms  as  a  "materialized  spirit,"  which 
we  deny,  as  already  explained. 

Inq.  You  have  just  spoken  of  psuche  running  towards  its  entire  annihil- 
ation if  it  attaches  itself  to  anoia.  What  did  Plato,  and  what  do  you, 
mean  by  this? 

24.  Paul  calls  Plato's  nous  "  Spirit " ;  but  as  this  spirit  is  "substance,"  then,  of 
course,  Buddhi  and  not  Atma  is  meant,  as  the  latter  can  not  philosophically 
be  called  "substance"  under  any  circumstance.  We  include  Atma  among  the 
human  "principles"  in  order  not  to  create  additional  confusion.  In  reality  it 
is  no  human  principle,  but  the  universal  absolute  principle  of  which  Buddhi, 
the  Soul-Spirit,  is  the  carrier. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  93 

ThEO.  The  entire  annihilation  of  the  personal  consciousness, 
as  an  exceptional  and  rare  case,  I  think.  The  general  and 
almost  invariable  rule  is  the  merging  of  the  personal  into  the 
individual  or  immortal  consciousness  of  the  Ego  —  a  trans- 
formation or  a  divine  transfiguration  —  and  the  entire  an- 
nihilation only  of  the  lower  quaternary.  Would  you  expect 
the  man  of  flesh  (or  the  temporary  personality) ,  his  shadow 
(the  astral),  his  animal  instincts,  and  even  physical  life,  to 
survive  with  the  "spiritual  Ego'^  and  become  sempiternal? 
Naturally  all  this  ceases  to  exist,  either  at  or  soon  after  cor- 
poreal death.  It  becomes  in  time  entirely  disintegrated  and 
disappears  from  view,  being  annihilated  as  a  whole. 

Inq.     Then  you  also  reject  resurrection  in  the  flesh? 

Theo.  Most  decidedly  we  do!  Why  should  we,  who  believe  in 
the  archaic  Esoteric  Philosophy  of  the  ancients,  accept  the 
unphilosophical  speculations  of  the  later  Christian  theology, 
borrowed  from  the  Eg>'ptian  and  Greek  exoteric  systems  of 
the  Gnostics? 

Inq.  The  Egyptians  revered  nature-spirits,  and  deified  even  onions ;  your 
Hindus  are  idolaters  to  this  day ;  the  Zoroastrians  worshiped,  and  do 
still  worship,  the  sun ;  and  the  best  Greek  philosophers  were  either 
dreamers  or  materialists  —  witness  Plato  and  Democritus.  How  can 
you  compare? 

Theo.  It  may  be  so  in  your  modern  theological  and  even  sci- 
entific catechisms;  it  is  not  so  for  unbiased  minds.  The 
Egyptians  revered  the  "  One-Only-One,"  as  Nont;  and  it 
is  from  this  word  that  Anaxagoras  got  his  denomination 
nous,  or,  as  he  calls  it,  vov?  avTOKpaxT/s,  "  the  mind  or  spirit  self- 
potent;"    dpx^/ 71-^5  Ktvr/o-tcjs,    "the    leading   motor"    or    prinintn 


94  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHV 

mobile  of  all.  With  him  the  Nous  was  God,  and  the  logos 
was  man,  his 'emanation.  The  nous  is  the  spirit  (whether 
in  Kosmos  or  in  man),  and  the  logos,  whether  Universe  or 
astral  body,  the  emanation  of  the  former,  the  physical  body 
being  merely  the  animal.  Our  external  powers  perceive 
phenomena;  our  Nous  alone  is  able  to  recognize  their  nou- 
mena.  It  is  the  logos  alone,  or  the  noumenon,  that  survives, 
because  it  is  immortal  in  its  very  nature  and  essence;  and 
the  logos  in  man  is  the  Eternal  Ego,  that  which  reincarnates 
and  lasts  forever.  But  how  can  the  evanescent  or  external 
shadow,  the  temporary  clothing  of  that  divine  Emanation 
which  returns  to  the  source  whence  it  proceeded,  be  that 
zvhich  is  "  raised  in  incorruptibility  "  ? 

Inq.  Still  you  can  hardly  escape  the  charge  of  having  invented  a  new 
division  of  man's  spiritual  and  psychic  constituents ;  for  no  philosopher 
speaks  of  them,  though  you  believe  that  Plato  does. 

Theo.  And  I  support  the  view.  Not  only  Plato,  but  also  Pyth- 
agoras followed  the  same  division. ^^  He  described  the  Soul 
as  a  self-moving  Unit  (monas)  composed  of  three  elements 
—  the  Nous  (spirit),  the  phren  (mind),  and  the  thumos 
(life,  breath,  or  the  nephesh  of  the  Kabalists),  which  three 
correspond  to  our  Atmd-Buddhi  (higher  Spirit-Soul),  to 
Manas  (the  Ego),  and  to  Kama  Rupa  in  conjunction  with 

25.  "  Plato  and  Pythagoras,"  says  Plutarch,  "  distribute  the  soul  into  two  parts,  the 
rational  [noetic]  and  irrational  soul  [agnoia]  ;  that  that  part  of  the  soul  of  man 
which  is  rational  is  eternal  —  for  though  it  be  not  God,  yet  it  is  the  product  of 
an  eternal  Deity  —  but  that  part  of  the  soul  which  is  divested  of  reason  [agnoia] 
dies."  The  modern  term  agnostic  comes  from  a-gnosticos,  a  word  cognate  with 
agnoia.  We  wonder  why  Mr.  Huxley,  the  author  of  the  word,  should  have  con- 
nected his  great  intellect  with  "the  soul. .  .divested  of  reason,"  which  dies?  Is 
it  the  exaggerated  humility  of  the  modern  materialist? 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  95 

the  lower  reflection  of  Manas.  That  which  the  ancient 
Greek  philosophers  termed  Soul,  in  general,  we  call  Spirit, 
or  Spiritual  Soul  —  Buddhi,  as  the  vehicle  of  Atma;  the  To 
Agathon,  or  Plato's  Supreme  Deity.  The  fact  that  Pyth- 
agoras and  others  state  that  phren  and  thumos  are  shared  by 
us  with  the  brutes  proves  that  in  this  case  the  loiver  manasic 
reflection  (instinct)  and  Kama  Rupa  (animal  living  pas- 
sions) are  meant.  And  as  Socrates  and  Plato  accepted  the 
clue  and  followed  it,  if  to  these  five  —  namely.  To  Agathon 
(Deity  or  Atma),  psuche  (soul  in  its  collective  sense).  Nous 
(Spirit  or  Mind),  phre^i  (physical  mind),  and  thumos  {Ka- 
ma Rupa  or  passions)  — we  add  the  eidolon  of  the  Mysteries 
(the  shadowy  form  or  human  double),  and  the  physical  body, 
it  will  be  easy  to  demonstrate  that  the  ideas  of  both  Pyth- 
agoras and  Plato  were  identical  with  ours.  Even  the  Egyp- 
tians held  to  the  septenary  division.  They  taught  that  the 
Soul  (Ego)  in  its  exit  had  to  pass  through  its  seven  chambers 
or  principles  —  both  those  it  left  behind  and  those  it  took 
along  with  itself.  The  only  difference  is  that,  ever  bearing 
in  mind  the  penalty  of  revealing  Mystery-doctrines,  w^hich 
was  death,  they  gave  out  the  teaching  in  broad  outline,  while 
we  elaborate  it  and  explain  it  in  its  details.  But  though  we 
do  give  out  to  the  world  as  much  as  is  lawful,  even  in  our 
doctrine  more  than  one  important  detail  is  withheld,  which 
those  who  study  the  Esoteric  Philosophy  and  are  pledged  to 
silence,  arc  alone  entitled  to  knozv. 


96  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

THE  GREEK  TEACHINGS 

I  NO.  We  have  magnificent  Greek  and  Latin,  Sanskrit  and  Hebrew  scholars. 
How  is  it  that  we  find  nothing  in  their  translations  that  would  afford 
us  a  clue  to  what  you  say? 

ThEo.  Because  your  translators,  their  great  learning  notwith- 
standing, have  made  of  the  philosophers  —  the  Greeks  es- 
pecially—  viisty  instead  of  mystic  writers.  Take  as  an  in- 
stance Plutarch,  and  read  what  he  says  of  the  "principles" 
of  man.  What  he  describes  is  accepted  literally  and  attrib- 
uted to  metaphysical  superstition  and  ignorance.  Let  me 
give  you  an  illustration  in  point  from  this  author: 

Man  is  compound ;  and  they  are  mistaken  zvho  think  him  to  be  com- 
pounded of  two  parts  only.  For  they  imagine  that  the  understanding 
[brain-intellect]  is  a  part  of  the  soul  [the  upper  triad]  ;  but  they  err  in 
this  no  less  than  those  who  make  the  soul  to  be  a  part  of  the  body  [i.e., 
those  who  make  of  the  triad  part  of  the  corruptible  mortal  quaternary]. 
For  the  understanding  [nous]  as  far  exceeds  the  soul  as  the  soul  is 
better  and  diviner  than  the  body.  Now  this  composition  of  the  soul 
[•A^X^]  with  the  understanding  [vous]  makes  reason,  and  with  the 
body  [or  thunws,  the  animal  soul]  passion;  of  which  the  one  is  the  be- 
ginning or  principle  of  pleasure  and  pain,  and  the  other  of  virtue  and 
vice.  Of  these  three  parts  conjoined  and  compacted  together,  the  earth 
has  given  the  body,  the  moon  the  soul,  and  the  sun  the  understanding, 
to  the  generation  of  man. 

This  last  sentence  is  purely  allegorical,  and  will  be  compre- 
hended only  by  those  who  are  versed  in  the  esoteric  science  of 
correspondences  and  know  what  planet  is  related  to  every 
.  principle.  Plutarch  divides  the  principles  into  three  groups, 
and  makes  of  the  body  a  compound  of  physical  frame,  astral 
shadow  and  breathy  or  the  triple  lower  part,  which  "  from 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  97 

earth  was  taken  and  to  earth  returns;"  of  the  middle  prin- 
ciple and  the  instinctual  soul,  the  second  part,  derived  from 
and  through,  and  ever  influenced  by,  the  moon;^^  and  only  of 
the  higher  part,  or  the  Spiritual  Soul  (Buddhi),  with  the 
Atmic  and  manasic  elements  in  it,  does  he  make  a  direct 
emanation  of  the  Sun,  who  stands  here  for  To  Agafhon,  the 
Supreme  Deity.  This  is  proven  by  what  he  says  further  as 
follows : 

Now  of  the  deaths  we  die,  the  one  makes  man  two  of  three  and 
the  other  one  of  [out  of]  two.  The  former  is  in  the  region  and  juris- 
diction of  Demeter;  whence  the  name  given  to  the  Mysteries,  reXetv, 
resembled  that  given  to  death,  reXevrav.  The  Athenians  also  hereto- 
fore called  the  deceased  sacred  to  Demeter.  As  for  the  other  death, 
it  is  in  the  moon  or  region  of  Persephone. 

Here  you  have  our  doctrine,  which  shows  man  a  septenary 
during  life;  a  quintile  just  after  death,  in  Kamaloka;  and  a 
threefold  Ego,  Spirit-Soul  and  consciousness  in  Devachan. 
This  separation,  first  in  the  "  Meadows  of  Hades,"  as  Plu- 
tarch calls  the  Kamaloka,  then  in  Devachan,  was  part  and 
parcel  of  the  performances  during  the  sacred  Mysteries, 
wdien  the  candidates  for  initiation  enacted  the  whole  drama 
of  death  and  the  resurrection  as  a  glorified  spirit,  by  which 
name  we  mean  Consciousness.  This  is  what  Plutarch  means 
when  he  says: 

And  as  with  the  one,  the  terrestrial,  so  with  the  other,  celestial, 
Hermes  doth  dwell.  This  suddenly  and  with  violence  plucks  the  soul 
from  the  body;  but  Proserpina  mildly  and  in  a  long  time  disjoins  the 

26.  The  Kabalists  who  know  the  relation  of  Jehovah,  the  life  and  children  giver,  to 
the  Moon,  and  the  influence  of  the  latter  on  generation,  will  again  see  the  point 
as  much  as  will  some  astrologers. 


98  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

understanding  from  the  soul.^^  For  this  reason  is  she  called  monogenes, 
only  begotten,  or  rather  begetting  one  alone;  for  the  better  part  of 
man  becomes  alone  zvhen  it  is  separated  by  her.  Now  both  the  one 
and  the  other  happens  thus  according  to  nature.  It  is  ordained  by 
Fate  [Fatum  or  Karma]  that  every  soul,  whether  with  or  without  un- 
derstanding [mind],  when  gone  out  of  the  body,  should  wander  for  a 
time  —  though  not  all  for  the  same  —  in  the  region  lying  between  the 
earth  and  moon  [Kamaloka].^^  For  those  who  have  been  unjust  and 
dissolute  suffer  then  the  punishment  due  to  their  offenses ;  but  the 
good  and  virtuous  are  there  detained  till  they  are  purified  and  have, 
by  expiation,  purged  out  of  them  all  the  infections  they  might  have  con- 
tracted from  the  contagion  of  the  body,  as  if  from  foul  health — living  in 
the  mildest  part  of  the  air,  called  the  Meadows  of  Hades,  where  they 
must  remain  for  a  certain  prefixed  and  appointed  time.  And  then,  as 
if  they  were  returning  from  a  wandering  pilgrimage  or  long  exile  into 
their  country,  they  have  a  taste  of  joy,  such  as  they  principally  receive 
who  are  initiated  into  Sacred  Mysteries,  mixed  with  trouble,  admira- 
tion, and  each  one's  proper  and  peculiar  hope. 

This  is  Nirvanic  bliss,  and  no  Theosophist  could  describe 
in  plainer  though  esoteric  language  the  mental  joys  of  Deva- 
chan,  where  every  man  has  his  paradise  around  him,  created 
by  his  consciousness.  But  you  must  beware  of  the  general 
error  into  which  too  many  even  of  our  Theosophists  fall.  Do 
not  imagine  that  because  man  is  called  septenary,  then  quin- 
tuple and  a  triad,  that  he  is  a  compound  of  seven,  five  or 
three  entities;  or,  as  well  expressed  by  a  Theosophical  writer, 
of  skins  to  be  peeled  off  like  the  skins  of  an  onion.     The 

27.  Proserpina,  or  Persephone,  stands  here  for  post-mortem  Karma,  which  is  said  to 

regulate  the  separation  of  the  lower  from  the  higher  "principles"  —  the  soul, 
as  Nephcsh,  the  breath  of  animal  life,  which  remains  for  a  time  in  Kama-loka, 
from  the  higher  compound  Ego,  which  goes  into  the  state  of  Devachan,  or  bliss. 

28.  Until  the  separation  of  the  higher,  spiritual  "principle"  from  the  lower  principles, 

which  remain  in  the  Kama-loka  until  disintegrated. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  99 

"principles,"  as  already  said  —  save  the  body,  the  life  and 
the  astral  eidolon,  all  of  which  disperse  at  death  —  are  sim- 
ply aspects  and  states  of  consciousness.  There  is  but  one 
real  man,  enduring  through  the  cycle  of  life  and  immortal  in 
essence,  if  not  in  form,  and  this  is  Manas,  the  Mind-man  or 
embodied  Consciousness.  The  objection  made  by  the  mater- 
ialists, who  deny  the  possibility  of  mind  and  consciousness 
acting  without  matter,  is  worthless  in  our  case.  We  do  not 
deny  the  soundness  of  their  argument,  but  we  simply  ask  our 
opponents :  Are  you  acquainted  zvith  all  the  states  of  matter 
—  you  who  knew  hitherto  but  of  three?  And  how  do  you 
know  whether  that  which  we  refer  to  as  Absolute  Con- 
sciousness or  Deity,  forever  invisible  and  unknowable,  be 
not  that  which,  though  it  forever  eludes  our  human  finite 
conception,  is  still  universal  Spirit-matter  or  matter-Spirit 
in  its  absolute  infinitude f  It  is,  then,  one  of  the  lowest,  and 
in  its  manvantaric  manifestations  fractioned,  aspects  of  this 
Spirit-matter  which  is  the  conscious  Bgo  that  creates  its  own 
paradise  —  a  fools'  paradise,  it  may  be,  still  a  state  of  bliss. 

Inq.    But  what  is  Devachan? 

ThKo.  The  "land  of  gods,"  literally;  a  condition,  a  state  of 
mental  bliss.  Philosophically,  a  mental  condition  analogous 
to,  but  far  more  vivid  and  real  than,  the  most  vivid  dream. 
It  is  the  state  after  death  of  most  mortals. 


100  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV 


VII 
ON  THE  VARIOUS  POST-MORTEM  STATES 


THE  PHYSICAL  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL  MAN 
Inq.     I  am  glad  to  hear  you  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

Theo.  Not  of  "the  soul,"  but  of  the  divine  Spirit;  or  rather 
in  the  immortaHty  of  the  reincarnating  Ego. 

Inq.     What  is  the  difference? 

Theo.  a  very  great  one  in  our  philosophy ;  but  this  is  too  ab- 
struse and  difficult  a  question  to  touch  lightly  upon.  We 
shall  have  to  analyze  them  separately,  and  then  in  conjunc- 
tion.    We  may  begin  with  Spirit. 

We  say  that  the  Spirit  —  the  "Father  in  secret"  of  Jesus 
—  or  Atman  is  no  individual  property  of  any  man,  but  is  the 
divine  essence  which  has  no  body,  no  form,  which  is  impond- 
erable, invisible  and  indivisible,  that  which  does  not  exist 
and  yet  is,  as  the  Buddhists  say  of  Nirvana.  It  only  over- 
shadows the  mortal ;  that  which  enters  into  him  and  pervades 
the  whole  body  being  but  its  omnipresent  rays,  or  light,  rad- 
iated through  Biiddhi,  its  vehicle  and  direct  emanation.  This 
is  the  secret  meaning  of  the  assertions  of  almost  all  the  an- 
cient philosophers  when  they  said  that  "  the  rational  part  of 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  101 

man's  soul  ""^  never  enters  wholly  into  the  man,  but  only 
overshadows  him  more  or  less  through  the  irrational  spirit- 
ual Soul,  or  Bnddhi.^° 

Inq.  I  labored  under  the  impression  that  the  "animal  soul"  alone  was 
irrational  and  not  the  divine  Soul. 

Theo.  You  have  to  learn  the  difiference  between  that  which  is 
negatively  or  passively  irrational,  because  undififerentiated, 
and  that  which  is  irrational  because  too  active  and  positive. 
Man  is  a  correlation  of  spiritual  powers,  as  well  as  a  cor- 
relation of  chemical  and  physical  forces,  brought  into  func- 
tion by  what  we  call  "principles." 

Inq.  I  have  read  a  good  deal  upon  the  subject,  and  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  notions  of  the  older  philosophers  differed  a  great  deal  from  those 
of  the  mediaeval  Kabalists,  though  they  do  agree  in  some  particulars. 

ThKo.  The  most  substantial  difiference  between  them  and  us  is 
this.  While  we  believe,  with  the  Neo-Platonists  and  the  East- 
ern teachings,  that  the  Spirit  {Atma)  never  descends  hypo- 
statically  into  the  living  man,  but  only  showers  more  or  less 
its  radiance  on  the  inner  man  —  the  psychic  and  spiritual 
compound  of  the  astral  principles  —  the  Kabalists  maintain 
that  the  human  Spirit,  detaching  itself  from  the  ocean  of 
light  and  Universal  Spirit,  enters  man's  Soul,  where  it  re- 
mains throughout  life  imprisoned  in  the  astral  capsule.    All 

29.  In  its  generic  sense,  the  term  "rational"  meaning  something  emanating  from  the 

Eternal  Wisdom. 

30.  Irrational  in  the  sense  that  as  a  pure  emanation  of  the  Universal  Mind  it  can  have 

no  individual  reason  of  its  own  on  this  plane  of  matter,  but,  like  the  Moon,  who 
borrows  her  light  from  the  Sun  and  her  life  from  the  Earth,  so  Buddhi,  re- 
ceiving its  light  of  Wisdom  from  Atma,  gets  its  rational  qualities  from  Manas. 
Per  se,  as  something  homogeneous,  it  is  devoid  of  attributes. 


102  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Christian  Kabalists  still  maintain  the  same,  as  they  are  un- 
able to  break  quite  loose  from  their  anthropomorphic  and 
Biblical  doctrines. 

Inq.     And  what  do  you  say? 

ThDo.  We  say  that  we  only  allow  the  presence  of  the  radiation 
of  Spirit,  or  Atma,  in  the  astral  capsule,  and  so  far  only  as 
that  spiritual  radiancy  is  concerned.  We  say  that  man  and 
Soul  have  to  conquer  their  immortality  by  ascending  toward 
the  unity  with  which,  if  successful,  they  will  be  finally  linked, 
and  into  which  they  are  finally,  so  to  speak,  absorbed.  The 
individualization  of  man  after  death  depends  on  the  spirit, 
not  on  his  soul  and  body.  Although  the  word  ''  personality," 
in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  usually  understood,  is  an  absurdity 
if  applied  literally  to  our  immortal  essence,  still  the  latter  is, 
as  our  individual  Ego,  a  distinct  entity,  immortal  and  eternal 
per  se.  It  is  only  in  the  case  of  black  magicians  or  of  crim- 
inals beyond  redemption  —  criminals  who  have  been  such 
during  a  long  scries  of  lives  —  that  the  shining  thread  which 
links  the  spirit  to  the  personal  soul  from  the  moment  of  the 
birth  of  the  child  is  violently  snapped,  and  the  disembodied 
entity  becomes  divorced  from  the  personal  soul,  the  latter 
being  annihilated  without  leaving  the  smallest  impression  of 
itself  on  the  former.  If  this  union  between  the  lower  or  per- 
sonal Manas  and  the  individual  reincarnating  Ego  has  not 
been  effected  during  life,  then  the  former  is  left  to  share  the 
fate  of  the  lower  animals  —  to  dissolve  gradually  into  ether 
and  have  its  personality  annihilated.  But  even  then  the 
spiritual  Ego  remains  a  distinct  being.  It  (the  spiritual 
Ego)  only  loses  —  after  that  special,  and  in  that  case,  indeed, 


THB    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  163 

useless,  life  —  one  Devachanic  state  which  it  would  other- 
wise have  enjoyed  as  that  idealized  personality,  and  is  rein- 
carnated almost  immediately,  after  enjoying  for  a  short 
time  its  freedom  as  a  planetary  spirit. 

Inq.  It  is  stated  in  Isis  Unveiled  that  such  planetary  spirits  or  angels, 
"  the  gods  of  the  Pagans  or  the  Archangels  of  the  Christians,"  will 
will  never  be  men  on  our  planet. 

Theo.  Quite  right.  Not  ''such  planetary  spirits,"  but  some 
classes  of  higher  Planetary  Spirits.  They  will  never  be  men 
on  this  planet,  because  they  are  liberated  spirits  from  a  pre- 
vious, earlier  world,  and  as  such  they  cannot  re-become  men 
on  this  earth.  Yet  all  these  will  live  again  in  the  next  and 
far  higher  mahmianvantara,  after  this  "  Great  Age  "  and 
its  Brahmic  pralaya  (a  little  period  of  sixteen  figures  or  so) 
are  over.  For  you  must  have  heard,  of  course,  that  Eastern 
philosophy  teaches  us  that  mankind  consists  of  such  "  Spir- 
its "  imprisoned  in  human  bodies.  The  difference  between 
animals  and  men  is  this:  the  former  are  ensouled  by  the 
^'principles"  potentially,  the  latter  actually.^^  Do  you  now 
understand  the  difference? 

Inq.  Yes;  but  this  specialization  has  been  in  all  ages  the  stumbling-block 
of  metaphysicians. 

Theo.  It  has.  The  whole  esotericism  of  the  Buddhistic  philo- 
sophy is  based  on  this  mysterious  teaching,  understood  by 
so  few,  and  so  totally  misrepresented  by  many  of  the  most 
learned  modern  scholars.  Even  metaphysicians  are  too  in- 
clined to  confound  the  effect  with  the  cause.     An  Ego  who 


31.     This  is  fully  explained  in  the  Commentaries  of  The  Secret  Doctrine,  volume  II. 


104  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

has  won  his  immortal  life  as  spirit  will  remain  the  same  Inner 
Self  throughout  all  his  rebirths  on  earth;  but  this  does  not 
imply  necessarily  that  he  must  either  remain  the  Mr.  Smith 
or  Mr.  Brown  he  was  on  earth,  or  lose  his  individuality. 
Therefore  the  astral  soul  and  the  terrestrial  body  of  a  man 
may,  in  the  dark  hereafter,  be  absorbed  into  the  cosmical 
ocean  of  sublimated  elements,  and  he  may  cease  to  feel  his 
last  personal  Ego  (if  it  did  not  deserve  to  soar  higher)  ;  and 
yet  the  divine  Ego  may  still  remain  the  same  unchanged  en- 
tity, though  this  terrestrial  experience  of  its  emanation  may 
be  totally  obliterated  at  the  instant  of  separation  from  the 
unworthy  vehicle. 

Inq.  If  the  "  Spirit,"  or  the  divine  portion  of  the  soul,  is  pre-existent  as 
a  distinct  being  from  all  eternity,  as  Origen,  Synesius,  and  other  semi- 
Christians  and  semi-Platonic  philosophers  taught,  and  if  it  is  the  same, 
and  nothing  more  than  the  metaphysically  objective  soul,  how  can  it 
be  otherwise  than  eternal?  And  what  matters  it  in  such  a  case,  whe- 
ther man  leads  a  pure  or  an  animal  life,  if,  do  what  he  may,  he  can 
never  lose  his  individuality? 

Theo.  This  doctrine,  as  you  have  stated  it,  is  just  as  pernicious 
in  its  consequences  as  that  of  vicarious  atonement.  Had 
the  latter  dogma,  in  company  with  the  false  idea  that  we  are 
all  immortal,  been  demonstrated  to  the  world  in  its  true  light, 
humanity  would  have  been  bettered  by  its  propagation. 

Let  me  repeat  to  you  again:  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Timaeus 
of  Locris,  and  the  old  Alexandrian  school  derived  the  Soul 
of  man  (or  his  higher  ''principles"  and  attributes)  from  the 
Universal  World-Soul,  the  latter  being,  according  to  their 
teachings,  Mthcr  (Pater-Zeus).  Therefore  none  of  these 
"principles"  can  be  the  unalloyed  essence  of  the  Pythagorean 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  105 

monas,  or  our  Atma-Buddhi,  because  the  aniiiia  niundi  is  but 
the  effect  —  the  subjective  emanation,  or  rather  radiation  — 
of  the  monas.  Both  the  human  Spirit,  or  the  individuaHty,  the 
reincarnating  Spiritual  Ego,  and  Buddhi,  the  Spiritual  soul, 
are  pre-existent.  But  while  the  former  exists  as  a  distinct 
entity,  an  individualization,  the  soul  exists  as  pre-existing 
breath,  an  unscient  portion  of  an  intelligent  whole.  Both 
were  originally  formed  from  the  Eternal  Ocean  of  light; 
but  as  the  Fire-Philosophers,  the  mediaeval  Theosophists,  ex- 
pressed it,  there  is  a  visible  as  well  as  invisible  spirit  in  fire. 
They  made  a  difference  between  the  anima  bruta  and  the 
anima  divina.  Empedocles  firmly  believed  all  men  and  an- 
imals to  possess  two  souls;  and  in  Aristotle  we  find  that  he 
calls  one  the  reasoning  soul  (vovs)  and  the  other  the  animal 
soul  i^xn)'  According  to  these  philosophers,  the  reasoning 
soul  comes  from  zvithin  the  Universal  Soul,  and  the  other 
from  zvithoiit. 

Tnq.  Would  you  call  the  Soul,  i.  e.,  the  human  thinking  Soul,  or  what 
you  call  the  Ego,  matter? 

Theo.  Not  matter,  but  substance,  assuredly;  nor  would  the 
word  ''matter,"  if  prefixed  with  the  adjective  primordial,  be 
a  word  to  avoid.  This  matter,  we  say,  is  coeternal  with 
Spirit,  and  is  not  our  visible,  tangible  and  divisible  matter, 
but  its  extreme  sublimation.  Pure  Spirit  is  but  one  remove 
from  the  no-Spirit,  or  the  absolute  All.  Unless  you  admit 
that  man  was  evolved  out  of  this  primordial  spirit-matter, 
and  represents  a  regular  progressive  scale  of  "principles" 
from  w^^a-Spirit  down  to  the  grossest  matter,  how  can  we 
ever  come  to  regard  the  inner  man  as  immortal,  and  at  the 
same  time  as  a  spiritual  entity  and  a  mortal  man  ? 


106  THE    KnV    TO    THBOSOPHV 

Inq.     Then  why  should  you  not  beheve  in  God  as  such  an  Entity? 

Theo.  Because  that  which  is  infinite  and  unconditioned  can 
have  no  form,  and  cannot  be  a  being  —  not  in  any  Eastern 
philosophy  worthy  of  the  name,  at  any  rate.  An  "entity"  is 
immortal,  but  is  so  only  in  its  ultimate  essence,  not  in  its  in- 
dividual form.  When  at  the  last  point  of  its  cycle  it  is  ab- 
sorbed into  its  primordial  nature ;  and  it  becomes  spirit  when 
it  loses  its  name  of  Entity. 

Its  immortality  as  a  form  is  limited  only  to  its  life-cycle 
or  the  mahdmanvantara,  after  which  it  is  one  and  identical 
with  the  Universal  Spirit,  and  no  longer  a  separate  entity. 
As  to  the  personal  Soul  —  by  which  we  mean  the  spark  of 
consciousness  that  preserves  in  the  Spiritual  Ego  the  idea 
of  the  personal  "  I "  of  the  last  incarnation  —  this  lasts,  as 
a  separate  distinct  recollection,  only  throughout  the  Deva- 
chanic  period,  after  which  time  it  is  added  to  the  series  of 
other  innumerable  incarnations  of  the  Ego,  like  the  remem- 
brance in  our  memory  of  one  of  a  series  of  days  at  the  end  of 
a  year.  Will  you  bind  the  infinitude  you  claim  for  your  God 
to  finite  conditions?  That  alone  which  is  indissolubly  cem- 
ented by  Atma  —  viz.,  Buddhi-Manas  —  is  immortal.  The 
soul  of  man  —  i.  e.,  of  the  personality  —  per  se  is  neither  im- 
mortal, eternal  nor  divine.     Says  the  Zohar: 

The  soul,  when  sent  to  this  earth,  puts  on  an  earthly  garment, 
to  preserve  herself  here;  so  she  receives  above  a  shining  garment,  in 
order  to  be  able  to  look  without  injury  into  the  mirror,  whose  light 
proceeds  from  the  Lord  of  Light. 

Moreover,  the  Zohar  teaches  that  the  soul  cannot  reach 
the  abode  of  bliss  unless  she  has  received  the  *'holy  kiss," 
or  the  reunion  of  the  soul  ivith  the  substance  from  zvhich  she 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  10? 

emanated  —  spirit.  All  souls  are  dual;  and  while  the  soul 
is  a  feminine  principle,  the  spirit  is  masculine.  While  im- 
prisoned in  body  man  is  a  trinity,  unless  his  pollution  is 
such  as  to  have  caused  his  divorce  from  the  spirit.  ''  Woe 
to  the  soul  which  prefers  to  her  divine  husband  [spirit]  the 
earthly  wedlock  with  her  terrestrial  body,"  records  a  text  of 
the  Book  of  the  Keys  —  a  Hermetic  work.  Woe  indeed;  for 
nothing  will  remain  of  that  personality  to  be  recorded  on 
the  imperishable  tablets  of  the  Ego's  memory. 

Inq.  How  can  that  which,  if  not  breathed  by  God  into  man,  yet  is  on 
your  own  confession  of  an  identical  substance  with  the  divine,  fail 
to  be  immortal? 

ThKo.  Every  atom  and  speck  of  matter,  not  of  substance  only, 
is  imperishable  in  its  essence,  but  not  in  its  individual  con- 
sciousness. Immortality  is  but  one's  unbroken  conscious- 
ness, and  the  personal  consciousness  can  hardly  last  longer 
than  the  personality  itself,  can  it?  And  such  consciousness,  as 
I  have  already  told  you,  survives  only  throughout  Devachan, 
after  which  it  is  reabsorbed,  first  in  the  individual,  and  then 
in  the  universal  consciousness.  Better  inquire  of  your  theo- 
logians how  it  is  that  they  have  so  sorely  jumbled  up  the 
Jewish  Scriptures.  Read  the  Bible,  if  you  would  have  a 
good  proof  that  the  writers  of  the  Pentateuch  —  Genesis 
especially  —  never  regarded  nephesh  —  that  which  God 
breathes  into  Adam  (Gen.  ii.  7) — as  the  immortal  soul. 
Here  are  some  instances :  *'  And  God  created  .  .  .  every 
life  \nephesh]  that  moveth  "  (Gen.  i.  21),  meaning  animals. 
"And  man  became  a  living  soul  [nephesh]  "  (Gen.  ii.  7), 
which  shows  that  the  word  nephesh  was  indififerently  applied 
to  immortal  man  and  to  mortal  beast.     "  And  surely  your 


108  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

blood  of  your  lives  [ncpheshim]  will  I  require;  at  the  hand 
of  every  beast  will  I  require  it,  and  at  the  hand  of  man." 
(Gen.  ix.  5).  *' Escape  for  thy  life  [nephesh]  "  (Gen.  xix. 
17).  "Let  us  not  kill  him"  (Gen.  xxxvii.  21).  "Let  us 
not  kill  his  nephesh"  is  the  Hebrew  text.  "Nephesh  for 
nephesh,"  says  Leviticus.  "  He  that  killeth  any  man  shall 
surely  be  put  to  death  "  —  literally,  "  He  that  smiteth  the 
nephesh  of  a  man"  (Lev.  xxiv.  17).  "And  he  that  killeth 
a  beast  [nephesh]  shall  make  it  good;  beast  for  beast"  (ibid. 
18),  whereas  the  original  text  has  it  "nephesh  for  nephesh" 
How  could  man  kill  that  which  is  immortal  ?  This  explains, 
also,  why  the  Sadducees  denied  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
and  also  affords  another  proof  that  very  probably  the  Mosaic 
Jews  —  the  uninitiated,  at  any  rate  —  never  believed  in  the 
soul's  survival  at  all. 


ON  ETERNAL  REWARD  AND  PUNISHMENT,  AND   ON  NIRVANA 

Inq.  It  is  hardly  necessary,  I  suppose,  to  ask  you  whether  you  believe  in 
the  Christian  dogmas  of  Paradise  and  Hell,  or  in  future  rewards  and 
punishments  as  taught  by  the  orthodox  churches? 

TiiKO.  As  described  in  your  catechisms,  we  reject  them  absol- 
utely; least  of  all  would  we  accept  their  eternity.  But  we 
believe  firmly  in  what  we  call  the  Lazv  of  Refribiition,  and  in 
the  absolute  justice  and  wisdom  guiding  this  Law,  or  Karma. 
Hence  we  positively  refuse  to  accept  the  cruel  and  unphilo- 
sophical  belief  in  eternal  reward  or  eternal  punishment.  We 
say  with  Horace: 

Let   rules   be   fixed   that  may   our   rage   contain, 
And  punish  faults  with  a  proportion  d  pain; 


TMB   KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  109 

But   do  not  flay  him   who   deserves   alone 
A  whipping  for  the  fault  that  he  has  done. 

This  is  a  rule  for  all  men,  and  a  just  one.  Have  we  to  be- 
lieve that  God,  whom  you  make  the  embodiment  of  wisdom, 
love  and  mercy,  is  less  entitled  to  these  attributes  than  mortal 
man? 

Inq.     Have  you  any  other  reasons  for  rejecting  this  dogma? 

ThDo.  Our  chief  reason  for  so  doing  is  the  fact  of  Reincarn- 
ation. As  already  stated,  we  reject  the  idea  of  a  new  soul 
created  for  every  newly-born  babe.  We  believe  that  every 
human  being  is  the  bearer,  or  vehicle,  of  an  Bgo  coeval  with 
every  other  Ego;  because  all  Egos  are  of  the  same  essence 
and  belong  to  the  primeval  emanation  from  one  universal 
infinite  Ego.  Plato  calls  the  latter  the  Logos  (or  the  second 
manifested  God) ;  and  we,  the  manifested  Divine  Principle, 
which  is  one  with  the  Universal  Mind  or  Soul  —  not  the 
anthropomorphic,  extra-cosmic  and  personal  God  in  which 
so  many  theists  believe.     Pray  do  not  confuse. 

Inq.  But  where  is  the  difficulty,  once  you  accept  a  manifested  Principle, 
in  believing  that  the  soul  of  every  new  mortal  is  created  by  that  Prin- 
ciple, as  all  the  Souls  before  it  have  been  so  created? 

Theo.  Because  that  which  is  impersonal  can  hardly  create,  plan 
and  think,  at  its  own  sweet  will  and  pleasure.  Being  a  uni- 
versal Lazv,  immutable  in  its  periodical  manifestations  — 
those  of  radiating  and  manifesting  its  own  essence  at  the  be- 
ginning of  every  new  cycle  of  life  —  It  is  not  supposed  to 
create  men,  only  to  repent  a  few  years  later  of  having  created 
them.  If  we  have  to  believe  in  a  Divine  Principle  at  all,  it 
must  be  in  one  which   is  as  absolute  harmony,   logic  and 


110  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHV 

justice,  as  it  is  absolute  love,  wisdom  and  impartiality;  and  a 
God  who  would  create  every  soul  for  the  space  of  one  brief 
span  of  life,  regardless  of  the  fact  whether  it  has  to  animate 
the  body  of  a  wealthy,  happy  man  or  that  of  a  poor  suffer- 
ing wretch,  hapless  from  birth  to  death,  though  he  has  done 
nothing  to  deserve  his  cruel  fate,  would  be  rather  a  senseless 
fiend  than  a  God.^^  Why,  even  the  Jewish  philosophers, 
believers  in  the  Mosaic  Bible  (esoterically,  of  course),  have 
never  entertained  such  an  idea.  Moreover,  they  believed  in 
Reincarnation,  as  we  do. 

Inq.     Can  you  give  me  some  instances  as  a  proof  of  this? 
Theo.     Most  decidedly  I  can.     Philo  Judseus  says : 

The  air  is  full  of  them  [of  souls]  ;  .  .  .  those  which  are  nearest  the 
earth,  descending  to  be  tied  to  mortal  bodies,  iraXivSpoixoOaiv  aCfiiis,  return 
to  other  bodies,  being  desirous  to  live  in  themP 

In  the  Zohar  the  soul  is  made  to  plead  her  freedom  before 
God: 

Lord  of  the  universe !  I  am  happy  in  this  world,  and  do  not  wish  to 
go  into  another  world,  where  I  shall  be  a  handmaid,  and  be  exposed 
to  all  kinds  of  pollutions.^"* 

The  doctrine  of  fatal  necessity,  the  everlasting  immutable 
law,  is  asserted  in  the  answer  of  the  Deity: 

Against  thy  will  thou  becomest  an  embryo,  and  against  thy  will  thou 
art  born. 2^ 

32.  See,    further,   "  On   the   Reward   and    Punishment   of   the   Ego." 

33.  De  Gignat,  p.  222  c;  De  Somniis,  455  d. 

34.  Zohar,  ii,  96. 

35.  Mishna,  Aboth,  iv,  29. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  HI 

Light  would  be  incomprehensible  without  darkness  to 
make  it  manifest  by  contrast ;  good  would  be  no  longer  good 
without  evil  to  show  the  priceless  nature  of  the  boon;  and 
so  personal  virtue  could  claim  no  merit  unless  it  had  passed 
through  the  furnace  of  temptation.  Nothing  is  eternal  and 
unchangeable  save  the  concealed  Deity.  Nothing  that  is 
finite  —  whether  because  it  had  a  beginning  or  must  have 
an  end  —  can  remain  stationary;  it  must  either  progress  or 
recede ;  and  a  soul  which  thirsts  after  a  reunion  with  its  spirit, 
which  alone  confers  upon  it  immortality,  must  purify  itself 
through  cyclic  migrations  onward  towards  the  only  land  of 
bliss  and  eternal  rest,  called  in  the  Zohar  the  "  Palace  of 
Love,"  n::nK  b'2^r\\  in  the  Hindii  religion,  "Moksha;"  among 
the  Gnostics,  the  "  Pleroma  of  Eternal  Light ;"  and  by  the 
Buddhists,  "  Nirvana."  And  all  these  states  are  temporary, 
not  eternal. 

Inq.     Yet  there  is  no  Re-incarnation  spoken  of  in  all  this. 

ThEo.  a  soul  which  pleads  to  be  allowed  to  remain  where  she 
is,  must  he  pre-existent,  and  not  have  been  created  for  the 
occasion.  In  the  Zohar,  however,  there  is  a  still  better  proof. 
Speaking  of  the  reincarnating  Egos,  the  rational  souls,  those 
whose  last  personality  has  to  fade  out  entirely,  it  is  said: 

All  souls  which  are  not  guiltless  in  this  world  have  already  alienated 
themselves  in  heaven  from  the  Holy  One  (blessed  be  he)  ;  they  have 
thrown  themselves  into  an  abyss  at  their  very  existence,  and  have  an- 
ticipated the  time  when  they  are  to  descend  (once  more)  on  earth.^*^ 

36.  iii,  61  b.  The  above  quotations  are  from  K.  R.  H.  Mackenzie's  Masonic  Cyclo- 
pedia, art.  "  Kabalah." 


112  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

The  '*  Holy  One  "  means  here,  esoterically,  the  Atman,  or 
Atmd-Buddhi. 

Inq.  Moreover,  it  is  very  strange  to  find  Nirvana  spoken  of  as  something 
synonymous  with  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  or  the  Paradise,  since  ac- 
cording to  every  Orientalist  of  note  Nirvana  is  a  synonym  of  annihil- 
ation ! 

The:o.  Taken  Hterally,  with  regard  to  the  personaHty  and  dif- 
ferentiated matter ;  but  not  otherwise.  These  ideas  on  Rein- 
carnation and  the  trinity  of  man  were  held  by  many  of  the 
early  Christian  Fathers.  It  is  the  jumble  made  by  the  trans- 
lators of  the  New  Testament  and  ancient  philosophical  treat- 
ises between  soul  and  spirit  that  has  occasioned  the  many 
misunderstandings.  It  is  also  one  of  the  many  reasons  why 
Buddha,  Plotinus  and  so  many  other  Initiates  are  now  ac- 
cused of  having  longed  for  the  total  extinction  of  their  souls 
—  "  absorption  unto  the  Deity,"  or  "  reunion  with  the  Uni- 
versal Soul,"  meaning,  according  to  modern  ideas,  annihil- 
ation. The  personal  soul  must,  of  course,  be  disintegrated 
into  its  particles  before  it  is  able  to  link  its  purer  essence  for- 
ever with  the  immortal  spirit.  But  the  translators  of  both 
the  Acts  and  the  Epistles,  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  the  modern  commentators  on  the 
Buddhist  Sutta  of  the  Foundation  of  the  Kingdom  of  Right- 
eousness, have  muddled  the  sense  of  the  great  apostle  of 
Christianity  as  of  the  great  reformer  of  India.  The  former 
have  smothered  the  word  psuchikos  (i/'vxtKos )  so  that  no  reader 
imagines  it  to  have  any  relation  with  soul;  and  with  this  con- 
fusing together  of  soul  and  spirit,  Bible  readers  get  only  a 
perverted  sense  of  anything  on  the  subject.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  interpreters  of  Buddha  have  failed  to  understand 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  113 

the  meaning  and  object  of  the  Buddhist   four  degrees  of 
DJiydua.     Ask  the   Pythagoreans:    Can  that   spirit  which 
gives  Hfe  and  motion  and  partakes  of  the  nature  of  hght  be 
reduced  to  nonentity  ?  Can  even  that  sensitive  spirit  in  brutes 
which  exercises  memory  —  one  of  the  rational  faculties  — 
die  and  become  nothing?    observe  the  Occultists.     In  Bud- 
dhistic philosophy  annihilation  means  only  a  dispersion  of 
matter,  in  whatever  form  or  semblance  of  form  it  may  be; 
for  everything  that  has  form  is  temporary,  and  is,  therefore, 
really  an  illusion.     For  in  eternity  the  longest  periods  of 
time  are  as  the  wink  of  an  eye.     So  with  form.     Before  we 
have  time  to  realize  that  we  have  seen  it,  it  is  gone  like  an  in- 
stantaneous flash  of  lightning,  and  passed  forever.     When 
the  Spiritual  entity  breaks  loose  forever  from  every  particle 
of  matter,  substance  or  form,  and  re-becomes  a  Spiritual 
breath,  then  only  does  it  enter  upon  the  eternal  and  unchange- 
able Nirvana,  lasting  as  long  as  the  cycle  of  life  has  lasted 
—  an   eternity,  truly.     And   then   that    Breath,  existing   in 
Spirit,  is  nothing  because  it  is  all;  as  a  form,  a  semblance,  a 
shape,  it  is  completely  annihilated;  as  absolute  Spirit  it  still 
is,  for  it  has  become,  to  coin  a  word,  Be-ness  itself.     The 
very  phrase  "  absorbed  in  the  universal  essence,"  when  used 
of  the  Soul  as  Spirit,  means  union  with.     It  can  never  mean 
annihilation,  for  that  would  mean  eternal  separation. 

Inq,  Do  you  not  lay  yourself  open  to  the  accusation  of  preaching  annihil- 
ation by  the  language  you  yourself  use?  You  have  just  spoken  of 
the  Soul  of  man  returning  to  its  primordial  elements. 

Theo.  But  you  forget  that  I  have  given  you  the  differences  be- 
tween the  various  meanings  of  the  word  "  Soul,"  and  shown 
the  loose  way  in  which  the  term  "  Spirit "  has  been  hitherto 


114  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

translated.  We  speak  of  an  animal,  a  human  and  a  spiritual 
soul,  and  distinguish  between  them.  Plato,  for  instance, 
calls  "  rational  Soul  "  that  which  we  call  Buddhi,  adding  to 
it  the  adjective  "  spiritual,"  however ;  but  that  which  we  call 
the  reincarnating  Ego,  Manas,  he  calls  Spirit,  Nous,  etc., 
whereas  we  apply  the  term  Spirit,  when  standing  alone  and 
without  any  qualification,  to  Atma  alone.  Pythagoras  re- 
peats our  archaic  doctrine  when  stating  that  the  Bgo  (nous) 
is  eternal  with  Deity;  that  the  soul  only  passed  through 
various  stages  to  arrive  at  divine  excellence;  while  thuinos 
returned  to  the  earth,  and  even  the  phren,  the  lower  Manas, 
was  eliminated.  Again,  Plato  defines  Soul  {Buddhi)  as  "  the 
motion  that  is  able  to  move  itself."  "  Soul,"  he  adds  {Laws, 
X.),  "is  the  most  ancient  of  all  things,  and  the  commence- 
ment of  motion "  —  thus  calling  Atma-Buddhi  Soul,  and 
Manas  Spirit,  which  we  do  not. 

Soul  was  generated  prior  to  body,  and  body  is  posterior  and  second- 
ary, as  being,  according  to  Nature,  ruled  over  by  the  ruling  soul.  .  .  . 
The  soul  which  administers  all  things  that  are  moved,  in  every  way, 
administers  likewise  the  heavens.  .  .  . 

Soul,  then,  leads  everything  in  heaven,  and  on  earth,  and  in  the  sea, 
by  its  movements  —  the  names  of  which  are,  to  will,  to  consider,  to  take 
care  of,  to  consult,  to  form  opinions  true  and  false,  to  be  in  a  state  of 
joy,  sorrow,  confidence,  fear,  hate,  love,  together  with  all  such  primary 
movements  as  are  allied  to  these.  .  .  .  Being  a  goddess  herself,  she 
ever  takes  as  an  ally  nous,  a  god,  and  disciplines  all  things  correctly 
and  happily ;  but  when  with  anoia  [not  nous]  it  works  out  everything 
the  contrary. 

In  this  language,  as  in  the  Buddhist  texts,  the  negative  is 
treated  as  essential  existence.  Annihilation  comes  under  a 
similar  exegesis.     The  positive  state  is  essential  being,  but 


THE    KBY    TO    THEOSOPHY  115 

no  manifestation  as  such.  When  the  spirit,  in  Buddhistic 
parlance,  enters  Nirvana,  it  loses  objective  existence,  but  re- 
tains subjective  being.  To  objective  minds  this  is  becoming 
absolute  "nothing;"  to  subjective,  No-thing,  nothing  to  be 
displayed  to  sense.  Thus  their  Nirvana  means  the  certitude 
of  individual  immortality  in  Spirit,  not  in  Soul,  which,  though 
"  the  most  ancient  of  all  things,"  is  still  —  along  with  all  the 
other  Gods  —  a  finite  emanation  in  forms  and  individuality, 
if  not  in  substance. 

Inq,  I  do  not  quite  seize  the  idea  yet,  and  would  be  thankful  to  have  you 
explain  this  to  me  by  some  illustrations. 

ThEo.  No  doubt  it  is  very  difficult  to  understand,  especially  to 
one  brought  up  in  the  regular  orthodox  ideas  of  the  Christ- 
ian church.  Moreover,  I  must  tell  you  one  thing;  and  this 
is  that  unless  you  have  studied  thoroughly  well  the  separate 
functions  assigned  to  all  the  human  ''principles,"  and  the 
state  of  all  these  after  death,  you  will  hardly  realize  our 
Eastern  philosophy. 


ON  THE  VARIOUS  "PRINCIPLES"  IN  MAN 

Inq.  I  have  heard  a  good  deal  about  this  constitution  of  the  "inner  man," 
as  you  call  it,  but  could  never  make  "  head  or  tail  on't,"  as  Gabalis 
expresses  it. 

Theo.  Of  course  it  is  most  difficult  and,  as  you  say,  "puzzling" 
to  understand  correctly  and  distinguish  between  the  various 
aspects,  called  by  us  the  "principles,"  of  the  real  Ego.  It  is 
the  more  so  as  there  exists  a  notable  difference  in  the  num- 
bering of  these  principles  by  various  Eastern  schools,  though 


116  THE   KHY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

at  the  bottom  there  is  the  same  identical   substratum  of 
teaching. 

Inq.  Do  you  mean  the  V^edantins,  as  an  instance?  Don't  they  divide  your 
seven  "principles"  into  five  only? 

Theo.  They  do ;  but  though  I  would  not  presume  to  dispute  the 
point  with  a  learned  Vedantin,  I  may  yet  state  as  my  private 
opinion  that  they  have  an  obvious  reason  for  it.  With  them 
it  is  only  that  compound  spiritual  aggregate  which  consists 
of  various  mental  aspects  that  is  called  Man  at  all,  the  phys- 
ical body  being,  in  their  view,  something  beneath  contempt, 
and  merely  an  illusion.  Nor  is  the  Vedanta  the  only  philo- 
sophy to  reckon  in  this  manner.  Lao-Tze,  in  his  Tao-te- 
King,  mentions  only  five  principles,  because  he,  like  the  Ved- 
antins,  omits  to  include  two  principles,  namely,  the  Spirit 
(Atmd)  and  the  physical  body,  the  latter  of  which,  moreover, 
he  calls  the  "cadaver."  Then  there  is  the  Taraka  Raja  Yoga 
school.  Its  teaching  recognizes  only  three  "principles,"  in 
fact;  but  then,  in  reality,  their  sthiilopddhi,  or  physical  body, 
in  its  waking,  conscious  state,  their  sukshmopddhi,  the  same 
body  in  svapna,  or  the  dreaming  state,  and  their  kdranopddhi, 
or  "causal  body,"  or  that  which  passes  from  one  incarnation 
to  another,  are  all  dual  in  their  aspects,  and  thus  make  six. 
Add  to  this  Atmd,  the  impersonal  Divine  Principle  or  the  im- 
mortal element  in  man,  undistinguished  from  the  Universal 
Spirit,  and  you  have  the  same  seven  again. •^^  They  are  wel- 
come to  hold  to  their  division ;  we  hold  to  ours. 

Inq.  Then  it  seems  almost  the  same  as  the  division  made  by  the  mystic 
Christians :    body,  soul  and  spirit. 

37.     See,   for  a  clearer  explanation,   The  Secret  Doctrine,  i,   157. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  117 

ThEo.  Just  the  same.  We  could  easily  make  of  the  body  the 
vehicle  of  the  ''vital  Double;"  of  the  latter  the  vehicle  of 
Life,  or  Prana;  of  Kama  Riipa,  or  animal  soul,  the  vehicle  of 
the  higher  and  the  lower  mind;  and  make  of  this  six  prin- 
ciples, crowning  the  whole  with  the  one  immortal  spirit.  In 
Occultism  every  qualificative  change  in  the  state  of  our  con- 
sciousness gives  to  man  a  new  aspect;  and  if  it  prevails  and 
becomes  part  of  the  living  and  acting  Ego,  it  must  be  (and 
is)  given  a  special  name,  to  distinguish  the  man  in  that  par- 
ticular state  from  the  man  he  is  when  he  places  himself  in 
another  state. 

Inq.     It  is  just  that  which  is  so  difficult  to  understand. 

ThEo.  It  seems  to  me  very  easy,  on  the  contrary,  once  that  you 
have  seized  the  main  idea,  i.  e.,  that  man  acts  on  this  or  an- 
other plane  of  consciousness  in  strict  accordance  with  his 
mental  and  spiritual  condition.  But  such  is  the  materialism 
of  the  age  that  the  more  we  explain  the  less  people  seem 
capable  of  understanding  what  we  say.  Divide  the  terres- 
trial being  called  man  into  three  chief  aspects,  if  you  like; 
and  unless  you  make  of  him  a  pure  animal  you  cannot  do  less. 
Take  his  objective  body:  the  thinking  principle  in  him  — 
which  is  only  a  little  higher  than  the  instinctual  element  in 
the  animal  —  or  the  vital  conscious  soul;  and  that  which 
places  him  so  immeasurably  beyond  and  higher  than  the  ani- 
mal, i.e.,  his  reasoning  soul  or  "spirit."  Well,  if  we  take 
these  three  groups  or  representative  entities,  and  subdivide 
them  according  to  the  occult  teaching,  what  do  we  get? 

First  of  all,  Spirit  —  in  the  sense  of  the  Absolute  and  there- 
fore indivisible  All  —  or  Atma.     As  this  can  neither  be  loc- 


118  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

ated  nor  limited  in  philosophy,  being  simply  that  which  iS 
in  Eternity,  and  which  cannot  be  absent  from  even  the  tiniest 
geometrical  or  mathematical  point  of  the  universe  of  matter 
or  substance,  it  ought  not  to  be  called,  in  truth,  a  "  human  " 
principle  at  all.  Rather,  and  at  best,  it  is,  in  metaphysics, 
that  point  in  space  which  the  human  Monad  and  its  vehicle, 
man,  occupy  for  the  period  of  every  life.  Now  that  point 
is  as  imaginary  as  man  himself,  and  in  reality  is  an  illusion, 
a  may  a;  but  then,  for  ourselves,  as  for  other  personal  Egos, 
we  are  a  reality  during  that  fit  of  illusion  called  life,  and  we 
have  to  take  ourselves  into  account  —  in  our  own  fancy,  at 
any  rate  —  if  no  one  else  does.  To  make  it  more  conceiv- 
able to  the  human  intellect  when  first  attempting  the  study 
of  Occultism,  and  to  solve  the  A  B  C  of  the  mystery  of  man. 
Occultism  calls  this  seventh  principle  the  synthesis  of  the 
sixth,  and  gives  it  for  vehicle  the  Spiritual  Soul  (Buddhi). 
Now  the  latter  conceals  a  mystery  which  is  never  given  to 
any  one,  with  the  exception  of  irrevocably  pledged  chelds, 
or  those,  at  any  rate,  who  can  be  safely  trusted.  Of  course 
there  would  be  less  confusion  could  it  only  be  told;  but  as 
this  is  directly  concerned  with  the  power  of  projecting  one's 
double  consciously  and  at  will,  and  as  this  gift,  like  the 
"  ring  of  Gyges,"  would  prove  very  fatal  to  man  at  large 
and  to  the  possessor  of  this  faculty  in  particular,  it  is  care- 
fully guarded.  But  let  us  proceed  with  the  "principles." 
This  divine  soul,  or  Buddhi,  then,  is  the  vehicle  of  the  Spirit. 
In  conjunction  these  two  are  one,  impersonal  and  without 
any  attributes  (on  this  plane,  of  course),  but  make  two 
spiritual  "principles."  If  we  pass  on  to  the  Human  Soul, 
Manas  or  mens,  every  one  will  agree  that  the  intelligence  of 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  ll9 

man  is  dual,  to  say  the  least  —  e.g.,  the  high-minded  man 
can  hardly  become  low-minded ;  the  very  intellectual  and  spir- 
itually minded  man  is  separated  by  an  abyss  from  the  ob- 
tuse, dull  and  material,  if  not  animal-minded,  man. 

Inq.  But  why  should  not  man  be  represented  by  two  "principles"  or  two 
aspects  rather? 

Theo.  Every  man  has  these  two  principles  in  him,  one  more 
active  than  the  other;  and  in  rare  cases  one  of  them  is  en- 
tirely stunted  in  its  growth,  so  to  say,  or  paralyzed  by  the 
strength  and  predominance  of  the  other  aspect  in  every  di- 
rection. These,  then,  are  what  we  call  the  two  principles  or 
aspects  of  Manas,  the  higher  and  the  lower ;  the  former,  the 
higher  Manas,  or  the  thinking,  conscious  Ego,  gravitating 
toward  the  spiritual  Soul  (Buddhi) ;  and  the  latter,  or  its 
instinctual  principle,  attracted  to  Kama,  the  seat  of  animal 
desires  and  passions  in  man.  Thus  we  have  four  principles 
justified,  the  last  three  being  ( 1 )  the  "  Double,"  which  we 
have  agreed  to  call  Protean  or  Plastic  Soul,  the  vehicle  of 
(2)  the  life  principle;  and  (3)  the  physical  body.  Of  course 
no  physiologist  or  biologist  will  accept  these  principles,  nor 
can  he  make  head  or  tail  of  them.  And  this  is  why,  perhaps, 
none  of  them  to  this  day  understand  either  the  functions  of 
the  spleen,  the  physical  vehicle  of  the  Protean  Double,  or 
those  of  a  certain  organ  on  the  right  side  of  man,  the  seat  of 
the  above-mentioned  desires ;  nor  yet  do  they  know  anything 
of  the  pineal  body,  which  is  described  as  a  horny  gland  with 
a  little  sand  in  it,  whereas  it  is  in  truth  the  very  seat  of  the 
highest  and  divinest  consciousness  in  man  —  his  omniscient, 
spiritual  and  all-embracing  mind.     And  this  shows  you  still 


120  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV 

more  plainly  that  we  have  neither  invented  these  seven  prin- 
ciples, nor  are  they  new  in  the  world  of  philosophy,  as  we 
can  easily  prove. 

Inq.     But  what  is  it  that  reincarnates,  in  your  belief? 

Theo.  The  spiritual,  thinking  Ego,  the  permanent  principle  in 
man,  or  that  which  is  the  seat  of  Manas.  It  is  not  Atma,  or 
even  Atma-Buddhi,  regarded  as  the  dual  monad,  which  is  the 
individual  or  divine  man,  but  Manas ;  for  Atman  is  the  Uni- 
versal All,  and  becomes  the  Higher  Self  of  man  only  in  con- 
junction with  Buddhi,  its  vehicle,  which  links  It  to  the  in- 
dividuality or  divine  man.  For  it  is  the  Buddhi-Manas  — 
the  united  fifth  and  sixth  principles  —  which  is  called  the 
Causal  Body  by  the  Vedantins,  and  which  is  consciousness, 
that  connects  It  with  every  personality  It  inhabits  on  earth. 
Therefore,  soul  being  a  generic  term,  there  are  in  men  three 
aspects  of  soul :  ( 1 )  the  terrestrial  or  animal ;  (2)  the  human 
soul;  and  (3)  the  spiritual  soul;  these,  strictly  speaking,  are 
one  soul  in  its  three  aspects.  Now  of  the  first  aspect  nothing 
remains  after  death;  of  the  second,  nous  or  Manas,  only  its 
divine  essence,  if  left  unsoiled,  survives;  while  the  third,  in 
addition  to  being  immortal,  becomes  consciously  divine,  by 
the  assimilation  of  the  higher  Manas.  But  to  make  it  clear 
we  have  to  say  a  few  words  first  of  all  about  Reincarnation. 

Inq.  You  will  do  well,  as  it  is  against  this  doctrine  that  your  enemies  fight 
the  most  ferociously. 

ThEo.  You  mean  the  Spiritualists?  I  know;  and  many  are 
the  absurd  objections  laboriously  spun  by  them  over  the 
pages  of  their  journals.  So  obtuse  and  malicious  are  some 
of  them  that  they  will  stop  at  nothing.     One  of  them  re- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  121 

cently  found  a  contradiction  —  which  he  gravely  discusses 
in  a  letter  to  Light  —  in  two  statements  picked  out  of  a  stud- 
ent's lectures.  He  discovers  this  grave  contradiction  in  the 
two  sentences :  "  Premature  returns  to  earth-life,  in  the 
cases  when  they  occur,  may  be  due  to  karmic  complication;" 
and  "  There  is  no  accident  in  the  supreme  act  of  divine  justice 
guiding  evolution."  So  profound  a  thinker  would  surely 
see  a  contradiction  of  the  law  of  gravitation  if  a  man  stretched 
out  his  hand  to  stop  a  falling  stone  from  crushing  the  head 
of  a  child! 


122  THE    KHY    TO    THMOSOPHY 


VIII 
ON  REINCARNATION  OR  REBIRTH 


WHAT  IS  MEMORY  ACCORDING  TO  THBOSOPHICAL  TEACHING? 

Inq.  The  most  difficult  thing  for  you  will  be  to  explain  and  give  reason- 
able grounds  for  such  a  belief.  No  Theosophist  has  ever  yet  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  forth  a  single  valid  proof  to  shake  my  skepticism. 
First  of  all,  you  have  against  this  theory  of  Reincarnation  the  fact 
that  no  single  man  has  yet  been  found  to  remember  that  he  has  lived, 
least  of  all  who  he  was,  during  his  previous  life. 

Theo.  Your  argument,  I  see,  tends  to  the  same  old  objection: 
the  loss  of  memory  in  each  of  us  of  our  previous  incarnation. 
You  think  it  invalidates  our  doctrine?  My  answer  is  that 
it  does  not;  or  that,  at  any  rate,  such  an  objection  can  not 
be  final. 

Inq.     I  should  like  to  hear  your  arguments. 

ThEo.  They  are  short  and  few.  Yet  when  you  take  into  consid- 
eration (a)  the  utter  inability  of  the  best  modern  psycho- 
logists to  explain  to  the  world  the  nature  of  mind,  and  {h) 
their  complete  ignorance  of  its  potentialities  and  higher 
states,  you  have  to  admit  that  this  objection  is  based  on  an 
a  priori  conclusion  drawn  from  prima  facie  and  circum- 
stantial evidence  more  than  anything  else.  Now,  what  is 
memory  in  your  conception,  pray? 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  123 

Inq.  That  which  the  generally  accepted  definition  explains:  the  faculty 
in  our  mind  of  remembering  and  of  retaining  the  knowledge  of  pre- 
vious thoughts,  deeds  and  events. 

ThEO.  Please  add  to  it  that  there  is  a  great  difiference  between 
the  three  accepted  forms  of  memory.  Besides  memory  in 
general  you  have  Remembrance,  Recollection  and  Remin- 
iscence, have  you  not?  Have  you  ever  thought  over  the  dif- 
ference?    Memory,  remember,  is  a  generic  name. 

Inq,     Yet,  all  these  are  only  synonyms. 

Thko.  Indeed,  they  are  not  —  not  in  philosophy,  at  all  events. 
Memory  is  simply  an  innate  power  in  thinking  beings,  and 
even  in  animals,  of  reproducing  past  impressions  by  an  asso- 
ciation of  ideas  principally  suggested  by  objective  things  or 
by  some  action  on  our  external  sensory  organs.  Memory  is 
a  faculty  depending  entirely  on  the  more  or  less  healthy  and 
normal  functioning  of  our  physical  brain ;  and  remembrance 
and  recollection  are  the  attributes  and  handmaidens  of  this 
memory.  But  reminiscence  is  an  entirely  different  thing. 
Reminiscence  is  defined  by  the  modern  psychologist  as  some- 
thing intermediate  between  remembrance  and  recollection,  or : 

A  conscious  process  of  recalling  past  occurrences,  but  ivithoiit  that 
full  and  varied  reference  to  particular  things  which  characterizes  recol- 
lection. 

Locke,  speaking  of  recollection  and  remembrance,  says: 

When  an  idea  again  recurs  without  the  operation  of  the  like  object 
on  the  external  sensory,  it  is  remembrance;  if  it  be  sought  after  by  the 
mind,  and  with  pain  and  endeavour  found  and  brought  again  into  view, 
it  is  recollection. 

But  even  Locke  leaves  reminiscence  without  any  clear  de- 


124  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

finition,  because  it  is  no  faculty  or  attribute  of  our  physical 
memory,  but  an  intuitional  perception  apart  from  and  out- 
side our  physical  brain ;  a  perception  which,  being  called  into 
action  by  the  ever-present  knowledge  of  our  spiritual  Ego, 
covers  all  those  visions  in  man  which  are  regarded  as  ab- 
normal —  from  the  pictures  suggested  by  genius  to  the  rav- 
ings of  fever  and  even  madness  —  and  are  classed  by  science 
as  having  no  existence  outside  of  our  fancy.  Occultism  and 
Theosophy,  however,  regard  reminiscence  in  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent light.  For  us,  while  memory  is  physical  and  evan- 
escent, and  depends  on  the  physiological  conditions  of  the 
brain  —  a  fundamental  proposition  with  all  teachers  of  mne- 
monics, who  have  the  researches  of  modern  scientific  psycho- 
logists to  back  them  —  reminiscence  is  the  memory  of  the 
soul.  And  it  is  this  memory  which  gives  the  assurance  to 
almost  every  human  being,  whether  he  understands  it  or  not, 
of  his  having  lived  before  and  having  to  live  again.  Indeed, 
as  Wordsworth  has  it : 

Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a   forgetting; 

The  Soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  Star, 
Hath  elsewhere  had  its  setting, 

And  Cometh  from  afar. 

Inq.  If  it  is  on  this  kind  of  memory  —  poetry  and  abnormal  fancies,  on 
your  own  confession  —  that  you  base  your  doctrine,  then  you  will 
convince  very  few,  I  am  afraid. 

ThKO.  I  did  not  "confess"  it  was  a  fancy.  I  simply  said  that 
physiologists  and  scientists  in  general  regard  such  reminis- 
cences as  hallucinations  and  fancy,  to  which  learned  conclus- 
ion they  are  welcome.  We  do  not  deny  that  such  visions  of 
the  past  and  glimpses  far  back  into  the  corridors  of  time  are 


THH    KHY    TO    THBOSOPHV  125 

abnormal,  as  contrasted  with  our  normal  daily  life  experience 
and  physical  memory.  But  we  do  maintain,  with  Professor 
W.  Knight,  that  "  the  absence  of  memory  of  any  action  done 
in  a  previous  state  cannot  be  a  conclusive  argument  against 
our  having  lived  through  it."  And  every  fair-minded  op- 
ponent must  agree  with  what  is  said  in  Butler's  Lectures  on 
Platonic  Philosophy,  "that  the  feeling  of  extravagance  with 
which  it  (pre-existence)  affects  us  has  its  secret  source  in  ma- 
terialistic or  semi-materialistic  prejudices."  Besides  which, 
we  maintain  that  memory  is,  as  Olympiodorus  called  it,  simply 
"  phantasy, "^^  and  the  most  unreliable  thing  in  us.  Ammon- 
ius  Saccas  asserted  that  the  only  faculty  in  man  directly  op- 
posed to  prognostication,  or  looking  into  futurity,  is  memory. 
Furthermore,  remember  that  memory  is  one  thing  and  mind 
or  thought  is  another:  memory  is  a  recording  machine,  a 
register  which  very  easily  gets  out  of  order ;  but  thoughts  are 
eternal  and  imperishable.  Would  you  refuse  to  believe  in 
the  existence  of  certain  things  or  men  only  because  your 
physical  eyes  have  not  seen  them  ?  Would  not  the  collective 
testimony  of  past  generations  who  have  seen  Julius  Caesar 
be  a  sufficient  guaranty  that  he  once  lived  ?  Why  should  not 
the  same  testimony  of  the  psychic  senses  of  the  masses  be 
taken  into  consideration  ? 


38.  "  The  phantasy,"  says  Olympiodorus,  in  Plato's  Ph(edo,  "  is  an  impediment  to 
our  intellectual  conceptions;  and  hence,  when  we  are  agitated  by  the  inspiring 
influence  of  the  Divinity,  if  the  phantasy  intervenes,  the  enthusiastic  energy 
ceases ;  for  enthusiasm  and  the  ecstasy  are  contrary  to  each  other.  Should  it 
be  asked  whether  the  soul  is  able  to  energize  without  the  phantasy,  we  reply 
that  its  perception  of  universals  proves  that  it  is  able.  It  has  perceptions, 
therefore,  independent  of  the  phantasy ;  at  the  same  time,  however,  the  phantasy 
attends  in  its  energies,  just  as  a  storm  pursues  him  who  sails  on  the  sea." 


12fl  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Inq.  But  don't  you  tliink  that  these  are  too  fine  distinctions  to  be  ac- 
cepted by  the  majority  of  mortals? 

Theo.  Say,  rather,  by  the  majority  of  materiahsts.  And  to 
them  we  say :  Behold,  even  in  the  short  span  of  ordinary  ex- 
istence memory  is  too  weak  to  register  all  the  events  of  a  life- 
time. How  frequently  do  even  most  important  events  lie 
dormant  in  our  memory  until  awakened  by  some  association 
of  ideas,  or  aroused  to  function  and  activity  by  some  other 
link!  This  is  especially  the  case  with  people  of  advanced 
age,  who  are  always  found  suffering  from  feebleness  of  re- 
collection. When,  then,  we  bear  in  mind  what  we  know 
about  the  physical  and  the  spiritual  principles  in  man,  it  is 
not  the  fact  that  our  memory  has  failed  to  record  our  pre- 
cedent life  and  lives  that  ought  to  surprise  us,  but  the  con- 
trary, were  it  to  happen. 

WHY  DO  WE  NOT  REMEMBER  OUR  PAST  LIVES  f 

Inq.  You  have  given  me  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  seven  principles.  Now 
how  do  they  account  for  our  complete  loss  of  any  recollection  of 
having  lived  before? 

Theo.  Very  easily.  Those  "principles"  which  we  call  phys- 
icaP^  are  disintegrated  after  death  together  with  their  con- 
stituent elements,  and  memory  along  with  the  brain.  This 
vanished  memory  of  a  vanished  personality  can  consequently 
neither  remember  nor  record  anything  in  the  subsequent  re- 

39.  Namely,  the  body,  life,  passional  and  animal  instincts,  and  the  astral  eidolon  of 
every  man,  whether  perceived  in  thought  or  our  mind's  eye,  or  objectively  and 
separate  from  the  physical  body;  which  principles  we  call  Sthula  Shanra,  Prana, 
Kama  Riipa  and  Linga  Shorira.  None  of  these  is  denied  by  science,  though  it 
calls  them  by  different  names. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  127 

incarnation  of  the  Ego.  Reincarnation  means  that  the  Ego 
will  be  furnished  with  a  neiv  body,  a  nczu  brain  and  a  nczv 
memory.  Therefore  it  would  be  as  absurd  to  expect  this 
nezv  memory  to  remember  that  which  it  has  never  recorded 
as  it  would  be  to  examine  under  a  microscope  a  shirt  which 
had  never  been  worn  by  a  murderer,  and  seek  on  it  for  the 
stains  of  blood  which  are  to  be  found  only  on  the  clothes  he 
has  worn.  It  is  not  the  clean  shirt  that  we  have  to  question, 
but  the  clothes  worn  during  the  perpetration  of  the  crime; 
and  if  these  are  burned  and  destroyed,  how  can  you  get  at 
them  ? 

Inq.  Aye,  and  how  can  you  get  at  the  certainty  that  the  crime  was  ever 
committed  at  all,  or  that  the  man  in  the  clean  shirt  ever  lived  before? 

ThEo.  Not  by  physical  processes,  most  assuredly,  nor  by  relying 
on  the  testimony  of  that  which  exists  no  longer.  But  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  circumstantial  evidence,  since  our  wise 
laws  accept  it,  more,  perhaps,  even  than  they  should.  To 
get  convinced  of  the  fact  of  Reincarnation  and  past  lives, 
one  must  put  oneself  en  rapport  with  one's  real  permanent 
Ego,  not  with  one's  evanescent  memory. 

Inq.  But  how  can  people  believe  that  which  they  do  not  knozv,  nor  have 
ever  seen,  far  less  put  themselves  en  rapport  with  it? 

Theo.  If  people,  and  they  the  most  learned,  will  believe  in  the 
Gravity,  Ether,  Force,  and  what  not  of  Science  —  abstrac- 
tions and  working  hypotheses  which  they  have  neither  seen, 
touched,  smelled,  heard  nor  tasted  —  why  should  not  other 
people  believe,  on  the  same  principle,  in  the  permanent  Ego,  a 
far  more  logical  and  important  "working  hypothesis"  than 
any  other  ? 


128  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

Inq.  What  is,  finally,  this  mysterious  eternal  principal?  Can  you  ex- 
plain its  nature  so  as  to  make  it  comprehensible  to  all? 

Theo.  The  Ego  which  reincarnates,  the  individual  —  not  per- 
sonal —  and  immortal  "  I  " ;  the  vehicle,  in  short,  of  the 
Atma-Buddhic  Monad  ;  that  which  is  rewarded  in  Devachan 
and  punished  on  earth;  and  that,  finally,  to  which  the  reflec- 
tion only  of  the  Skandhas,  or  attributes,'*°of  every  incarnation 
attaches  itself. 

Inq.     What  do  you  mean  by  skandhas? 

ThEo.  Just  what  I  said  —  "attributes,"  among  which  is  memory. 
All  of  these  perish  like  a  flower,  leaving  behind  them  only  a 
feeble  perfume.  [It  is  very  difficult  for  a  Western  mind  to 
grasp  the  Eastern  teachings ;  for  the  West  has  only  a  science 
of  the  material  world  and,  so  far  as  the  inner  nature  of 
things  is  concerned,  it  has  nothing  better  than  the  science  of 
metaphysics  for  a  guide  —  if  you  can  call  that  a  science  which 
deals  only  in  abstractions  and  intellectual  conceptions.  The 
West  has  no  idea  of  treating  the  mind,  the  passions,  and  all 
the  numerous  factors  that  go  to  make  up  the  personality  of 
man,  as  actual  existences.  Nevertheless  they  are  so,  and 
they  are  as  objective,  to  the  eye  of  the  trained  seer,  as  is  the 
physical  body  to  the  eye  of  modern  science.  And,  if  even 
the  perishable  personality  of  man  is  such  an  utter  terra  incog- 
nita to  our  science,  how  much  more  so  must  the  immortal 
Self  be.     William  Q.  Judge  says : 

40.  There  are  five  Skandhas,  or  attributes,  in  the  Buddhist  teachings:  "  rupa  (form 
or  body),  material  qualities;  vedana,  sensation;  sauna,  abstract  ideas;  samkhara, 
tendencies  of  mind;  vinnana,  mental  powers.  Of  these  we  are  formed;  by  them 
we  are  conscious  of  existence ;  and  through  them  communicate  with  the  world 
about  us." 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  129 

The  body  includes  one  set  of  the  skandhas,  the  astral  man  another, 
the  kdma  principle  is  another  set,  and  still  others  pertain  to  other  parts. 
In  kama  are  the  really  active  and  important  ones  which  control  re- 
births and  lead  to  all  the  varieties  of  life  and  circumstance  upon  each 
rebirth.  They  are  being  made  from  day  to  day  under  the  law  that 
every  thought  combines  instantly  with  one  of  the  elemental  forces  of 
nature,  becoming  to  that  extent  an  entity  which  will  endure  in  accord- 
ance with  the  strength  of  the  thought  as  it  leaves  the  brain,  and  all 
of  these  are  inseparably  connected  with  the  being  that  evolved  them. 
There  is  no  way  of  escaping;  all  we  can  do  is  to  have  thoughts  of 
good  quality,  for  the  highest  of  the  Masters  themselves  are  not  exempt 
from  this  law,  but  they  "people  their  current  in  space"  with  entities 
powerful  for  good  alone. 

Now  in  Kdma-loka  this  mass  of  desire  and  thought  exists  very 
definitely  until  the  conclusion  of  its  disintegration  and  then  the  re- 
mainder consists  of  the  essence  of  these  skandhas,  connected  of  course, 
with  the  being  that  evolved  and  had  them.  They  can  no  more  be 
done  away  with  than  we  can  blot  out  the  universe.  Hence  they  are 
said  to  remain  until  the  being  comes  out  of  Devachan,  and  then  at  once 
by  the  law  of  attraction  they  are  drawn  to  the  being,  who  from 
them  as  germ  or  basis  builds  up  a  new  set  of  skandhas  for  the 
new  life.  .  .  . 

Struggling  out  of  the  body  the  entire  man  goes  into  Kdma-loka, 
to  purgatory,  where  he  again  struggles  and  loosens  himself  from  the 
lower  skandhas;  .  .  .  The  very  nature  of  Manas  requires  a  Dcvachanic 
state  as  soon  as  the  body  is  lost,  and  it  is  simply  the  effect  of  loosening 
the  bonds  placed  upon  the  mind  by  its  physical  and  astral  encasement. 
In  life  we  can  but  to  a  fractional  extent  act  out  the  thoughts  we  have 
each  moment;  and  still  less  can  we  exhaust  the  psychic  energies  en- 
gendered by  each  day's  aspirations  and  dreams.  The  energy  thus 
engendered  is  not  lost  or  annihilated,  but  is  stored  in  Manas,  but  the 
body,  brain,  and  astral  body  permit  no  full  development  of  the  force. 
Hence,  held  latent  until  death,  it  bursts  then  from  the  weakened  bonds 
and  plunges  Manas,  the  thinker,  into  the  expansion,  use,  and  develop- 
ment of  the  thought- force  set  up  in  life.] 


130  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

This  proves  to  you  that  while  the  undying  quahties  of  the 
personaHty  —  such  as  love,  goodness,  charity,  etc.  —  attach 
themselves  to  the  immortal  Ego,  photographing  on  it,  so  to 
speak,  a  permanent  image  of  the  divine  aspect  of  the  man 
who  was,  his  material  skandhas  —  those  which  generate  the 
most  marked  karmic  effects  —  are  as  evanescent  as  a  flash 
of  lightning,  and  cannot  impress  the  new  brain  of  the  new 
personality;  yet  their  failing  to  do  so  impairs  in  no  way  the 
identity  of  the  reincarnating  Ego. 

Inq.  Do  you  mean  to  infer  that  that  which  survives  is  only  the  Soul- 
memory,  as  you  call  it,  that  Soul  or  Ego  being  one  and  the  same, 
while  nothing  of  the  personality  remains? 

ThKO.  Not  quite ;  something  of  each  personality  —  unless  the 
latter  was  an  absolute  materialist,  with  not  even  a  chink  in 
his  nature  for  a  spiritual  ray  to  pass  through  —  must  sur- 
vive, as  it  leaves  its  eternal  impress  on  the  incarnating  per- 
manent Self  or  Spiritual  Ego/^  The  personality,  with  its 
skandhas,  is  ever  changing  with  every  new  birth.  It  is,  as 
said  before,  only  the  part  played  by  the  actor,  the  true  Ego, 
for  one  night.  This  is  why  we  preserve  no  memory  on  the 
physical  plane  of  our  past  lives,  though  the  real  "  Ego  "  has 
lived  them  over  and  knows  them  all. 

Inq,  Then  how  does  it  happen  that  the  real  or  Spiritual  man  does  not 
impress  his  new  personal  "  I  "  with  this  knowledge  ? 

Th^o.     How  is  it  that  the  servant-girls  in  a  poor  farm-house 

41.  Or  the  Spiritual  in  contradistinction  to  the  personal  self.  The  student  must  not 
confuse  this  Spiritual  Ego  with  the  Higher  Selp,  which  is  Atma,  the  God 
within  us,  and  inseparable  from  the  Universal  Spirit.  (See  Section  IX,  "On 
Post-mortem  and  Post-natal  Consciousness.") 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  131 

could  speak  Hebrew  and  play  the  violin  in  their  trance  or 
somnambulic  state,  and  knew  neither  when  in  their  normal 
condition?  Because,  as  every  genuine  psychologist  of  the 
old  —  not  your  modern  —  school  will  tell  you,  the  Spiritual 
Ego  can  act  only  when  the  personal  Ego  is  paralyzed.  The 
Spiritual  "  I  "  in  man  is  omniscient  and  has  every  knowledge 
innate  in  it,  while  the  personal  self  is  the  creature  of  its  en- 
vironment and  the  slave  of  the  physical  memory.  Could  the 
former  manifest  itself  uninterruptedly  and  without  impedi- 
ment, there  would  be  no  longer  men  on  earth,  but  we  should 
all  be  gods. 

Inq.     Still  there  ought  to  be  exceptions,  and  some  ought  to  remember. 

Theo.  And  so  they  do.  But  who  believes  in  their  report?  Such 
sensitives  are  generally  regarded  as  hallucinated  hysteriacs, 
as  crack-brained  enthusiasts  or  humbugs,  by  modern  mater- 
ialists. Let  them  read,  however,  works  on  this  subject,  pre- 
eminently Reincarnation:  A  Study  of  Forgotten  Truth,  by 
E.  D.  Walker,  and  see  in  it  the  mass  of  proofs  which  the  able 
author  brings  to  bear  on  this  vexed  question.  Speak  to  some 
people  of  soul,  and  they  ask.  What  is  Soul  ?  Have  you  ever 
proved  its  existence?  Of  course  it  is  useless  to  argue  with 
those  who  are  materialists.  But  even  to  them  I  would  put 
the  question.  Can  you  remember  what  you  were  or  what  you 
did  when  a  baby?  Have  you  preserved  the  smallest  recol- 
lection of  your  life,  thoughts  or  deeds,  or  that  you  lived  at 
all  during  the  first  eighteen  months  or  two  years  of  your  ex- 
istence? Then  why  not  deny  that  you  have  ever  lived  as  a 
babe,  on  the  same  principle?  W'hen  to  all  this  we  add  that 
the  reincarnating  Ego,  or  individuaVity,  retains  during  the 


132  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Devachanic  period  merely  the  essence  of  the  experience  of 
its  past  earth-life  or  personality,  the  whole  physical  exper- 
ience involving  into  a  state  of  in  potentia,  or  being,  so  to 
speak,  translated  into  spiritual  formulas ;  when  we  remember, 
further,  that  the  term  between  two  rebirths  is  said  to  extend 
from  ten  to  fifteen  centuries  —  during  which  the  physical 
consciousness  is  totally  and  absolutely  inactive,  having  no 
organs  to  act  through,  and  therefore  no  existence  —  the  rea- 
son for  the  absence  of  all  remembrance  in  the  purely  physical 
memory  is  apparent. 

Inq.  You  just  said  that  the  Spiritual  Ego  was  omniscient.  Where,  then, 
is  that  vaunted  omniscience  during  its  Devachanic  life,  as  you  call  it? 

Theo.  During  that  time  it  is  latent  and  potential,  because,  first 
of  all,  the  Spiritual  Ego,  the  compound  of  Buddhi-Manas,  is 
not  the  Higher  SELF,  which  being  one  with  the  Universal 
Soul  or  Mind,  is  alone  omniscient;  and,  secondly,  because 
Devachan  is  the  idealized  continuation  of  the  terrestrial  life 
just  left  behind,  a  period  of  retributive  adjustment,  and  a  re- 
ward for  unmerited  wrongs  and  sufferings  undergone  in  that 
special  life.  The  Spiritual  Ego  is  omniscient  only  potentially 
in  Devachan;  it  enjoys  actual  omniscience  in  Nirvana  alone 
when  the  Ego  is  merged  in  the  Universal  Mind-Soul.  Nev- 
ertheless the  Ego  re-becomes  quasi-oxnn\sc\tnt  during  those 
hours  on  earth  when  certain  abnormal  conditions  and  physio- 
logical changes  in  the  body  make  it  free  from  the  trammels 
of  matter.  Thus  the  examples  cited  above  of  somnambulists 
—  a  poor  servant  speaking  Hebrew,  and  another  playing  the 
violin  —  give  you  an  illustration  of  the  case  in  point.  This 
does  not  mean  that  the  explanations  of  these  two  facts  of- 
fered us  by  medical  science  have  no  truth  in  them,  for  one 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  133 

girl  had,  years  before,  heard  her  master,  a  clergyman,  read 
Hebrew  works  aloud,  and  the  other  had  heard  an  artist  play- 
ing a  violin  at  their  farm.  But  neither  could  have  done  so 
as  perfectly  as  they  did  had  they  not  been  ensouled  by  That 
which,  owing  to  the  sameness  of  its  nature  with  the  Universal 
Mind,  is  omniscient.  In  the  former  case  the  higher  principle 
acted  on  the  skandhas  and  moved  them;  in  the  latter,  the 
personality  being  paralyzed,  the  individuality  manifested  it- 
self.    Pray  do  not  confuse  the  two. 


ON  INDIVIDUALITY  AND  PERSONALITY 

Inq.  But  what  is  the  difference  between  the  two?  I  confess  that  I  am 
still  in  the  dark, 

Theo.  I  have  long  tried  to  impress  the  distinction  between  the 
individuality  and  personality  on  people's  minds;  but  alas!  it 
is  harder  with  some  of  them  than  to  make  them  feel  a  rever- 
ence for  childish  impossibilities,  only  because  they  are  ortho- 
dox, and  because  orthodoxy  is  respectable.  To  understand 
the  idea  well,  you  have  first  to  study  the  dual  sets  of  "prin- 
ciples" :  the  spiritual,  or  those  which  belong  to  the  imperish- 
able Ego;  and  the  material,  or  those  principles  which  make 
up  the  ever-changing  bodies  or  the  series  of  personalities  of 
that  Ego.    Let  us  fix  permanent  names  to  these,  and  say  that : 

I.  Atma,  the  "Higher  Self,"  is  neither  your  Spirit  nor  mine, 
but,  like  sunlight,  shines  on  all.  It  is  the  universally 
dififused  Divine  Principle,  and  is  inseparable  from  its 
one  and  absolute  M^fa-Spirit,  as  the  sunbeam  is  insep- 
arable from  sunlight. 


134  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

II.  Buddhi,  the  spiritual  soul,  is  only  its  vehicle.  Neither 
Atmd  nor  Buddhi  separately,  nor  the  two  collectively, 
are  of  any  more  use  to  the  body  of  man  than  sunlight 
and  its  beams  are  for  a  mass  of  granite  buried  in  the 
earth,  unless  the  divine  Duad  is  assimilated  by,  and  re- 
flected in,  some  consciousness.  Neither  Atmd  nor  Bud- 
dhi is  ever  reached  by  Karma,  because  the  former  is  the 
highest  aspect  of  Karma,  the  zvorking  agent  of  iTSELiP 
in  one  aspect,  and  the  latter  is  unconscious  on  this  plane. 
This  consciousness  or  mind  is 

III.  Manas,'*^  the  derivation  or  product,  in  a  reflected  form, 
of  ahamkdra,  "  the  conception  of  I  "  or  "  Ego-ship.'' 
It  is  therefore,  when  inseparably  united  to  the  first  two, 
called  the  Spiritual  Ego,  and  Taijasa  (the  radiant). 
This  is  the  real  Individuality,  or  the  divine  man.  It 
is  this  Ego  which  —  having  originally  incarnated  in 
the  senseless  human  form  animated  by,  but  unconscious 
of,  the  presence  in  itself  of  the  dual  monad,  since  it  had 
no  consciousness  —  made  of  that  human-like  form  a  real 
man.  It  is  this  Ego,  this  "  Causal  Body,"  which  over- 
shadows every  personality  into  which  Karma  forces  it 
to  incarnate.  It  is  this  Ego  which  is  held  responsible 
for  all  the  sins  committed  through  and  in  every  new 

42.  Mahat,  or  the  "  Universal  Mind,"  is  the  source  of  Manas.  The  latter  is  Mahat, 
t.  e.,  mind,  in  man.  Manas  is  also  called  Kshetrajna,  embodied  spirit,  because  it 
is,  according  to  our  philosophy,  the  Manasa-putras,  or  "  Sons  of  the  Universal 
Mind,"  who  created,  or  rather  produced,  the  thinking  man,  "  manu"  by  incarnat- 
ing in  the  third  Race  mankind  in  our  Round.  It  is  Manas,  therefore,  which  is 
the  real  incarnating  and  permanent  Spiritual  Ego,  the  individuality,  and  our 
various  and  numberless  personalities  only  its  external  masks. 


THE    KBY    TO    THBOSOPHY  135 

body  or  personality  —  the  evanescent  masks  which  hide 
the  true  Individual  through  the  long  series  of  rebirths. 

Inq.  But  is  this  just?  Why  should  this  Ego  receive  punishment  as  the 
result  of  deeds  which  it  has  forgotten  ? 

Theo.  It  has  not  forgotten  them;  it  knows  and  remembers  its 
misdeeds  as  well  as  you  remember  what  you  did  yesterday. 
Is  it  because  the  memory  of  that  bundle  of  physical  com- 
pounds called  "  body  "  does  not  recollect  what  its  predecessor, 
the  personality  that  zvas,  did,  that  you  imagine  that  the  real 
Ego  has  forgotten  them?  As  well  say  it  is  unjust  that  the 
new  coat  on  the  back  of  a  boy  who  is  flogged  for  stealing 
apples  should  be  punished  for  that  of  which  it  knows  nothing. 

Inq.  But  are  there  no  modes  of  communication  between  the  Spiritual  and 
human  consciousness  or  memory? 

ThKo.  Of  course  there  are;  but  they  have  never  been  recognized 
by  your  modern  scientific  psychologists.  To  what  do  you 
attribute  intuition,  the  ''  voice  of  conscience,"  premonitions, 
vague,  undefined  reminiscences,  etc.,  if  not  to  such  communi- 
cations ?  Would  that  the  majority  of  educated  men,  at  least, 
had  the  fine  spiritual  perceptions  of  Coleridge,  who  shows 
how  intuitional  he  is  in  some  of  his  comments.  Hear  what 
he  says  with  respect  to  the  probability  that  "  all  thoughts 
are  in  themselves  imperishable:" 

If  the  intelligent  faculty  [sudden  "revivals"  of  memory]  should  be 
rendered  more  comprehensive,  it  would  require  only  a  different  and  ap- 
propriate organization  —  the  body  celestial  instead  of  the  body  terres- 
trial—  to  bring  before  every  human  soul  the  collective  experience  of  its 
whole  past  existence  [existences,  rather]. 

And  this  body  celestial  is  our  Manasic  Ego. 


136  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


ON  THE  REWARD  AND  PUNISHMENT  OF  THE  EGO 

Inq.  I  have  heard  you  say  that  the  Ego,  whatever  the  Hfe  of  the  person 
he  incarnated  in  may  have  been  on  Earth,  is  never  visited  with  post- 
mortem punishment. 

Theo.  Never,  save  in  very  exceptional  and  rare  cases,  of  which 
we  will  not  speak  here,  as  the  nature  of  the  "  punishment  " 
in  no  way  approaches  any  of  your  theological  conceptions  of 
damnation. 

Inq.  But  if  it  is  punished  in  this  Hfe  for  the  misdeeds  committed  in  pre- 
vious Hves,  then  it  is  this  Ego  that  ought  to  be  rewarded  also,  whether 
here  or  when  disincarnated. 

Theo.  And  so  it  is.  If  we  do  not  admit  of  any  punishment 
outside  of  this  earth,  it  is  because  the  only  state  the  Spiritual 
Self  knows  of  hereafter  is  that  of  unalloyed  bliss. 

Inq.     What  do  you  mean? 

Theo.  Simply  this:  crimes  and  sins  committed  on  a  plane  of 
objectivity  and  in  a  world  of  matter  cannot  receive  punish- 
ment in  a  ivorld  of  pure  subjectivity.  We  believe  in  no  hell 
or  paradise  as  localities ;  in  no  objective  hell-fires  and  worms 
that  never  die,  nor  in  any  Jerusalems  with  streets  paved  with 
sapphires  and  diamonds.  What  we  believe  in  is  a  post-mor- 
tem state  or  mental  condition  such  as  we  are  in  during  a 
vivid  dream.  We  believe  in  an  immutable  law  of  absolute 
Love,  Justice  and  Mercy.  And  believing  in  it,  we  say :  What- 
ever was  the  sin  and  whatever  were  the  dire  results  of  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  137 

original  karmic  transgression  of  the  now  incarnated  Egos/^ 
no  man  —  or  the  outer  material  and  periodical  form  of  the 
Spiritual  Entity  —  can  be  held,  with  any  degree  of  justice, 
responsible  for  the  consequences  of  his  birth.  He  does  not 
ask  to  be  born,  nor  can  he  choose  the  parents  that  will  give 
him  life.  In  every  respect  he  is  a  victim  to  his  environment, 
the  child  of  circumstances  over  which  he  has  no  control ;  and 
if  each  of  his  transgressions  were  impartially  investigated, 
it  would  be  found  that  in  nine  out  of  every  ten  cases  he  was 
the  one  sinned  against,  rather  than  the  sinner.  Life  is  at 
best  a  heartless  play,  a  stormy  sea  to  cross,  and  a  heavy  bur- 
den often  too  difficult  to  bear.  The  greatest  philosophers 
have  tried  in  vain  to  fathom  and  find  out  its  raison  d'etre, 
and  —  except  those  who  had  the  key  to  it,  namely,  the  East- 
ern sages  —  have  all  failed.  Life  is,  as  Shakespeare  de- 
scribes it : 

....  but  a  walking  shadow  —  a  poor  player, 
That  struts  and   frets   his  hour   upon  the  stage, 
And  then  is  heard  no  more.     It  is  a  tale 
Told  by   an   idiot,    full   of   sound  and    fury, 
Signifying  nothing  — 

43.  It  is  on  this  transgression  that  the  cruel  and  illogical  dogma  of  the  Fallen  Angels 
has  been  built,  which  is  explained  in  the  second  volume  of  The  Secret  Doctrine. 
All  our  "  Egos "  are  thinking  and  rational  entities  (Mdnasa-putras)  who  had 
lived,  whether  under  human  or  other  forms,  in  the  precedent  life-cycle  (Man- 
vantara),  and  whose  Karma  it  was  to  incarnate  in  the  man  of  this  one.  It  was 
taught  in  the  Mysteries  that,  having  delayed  in  complying  with  this  law  (or 
having  "refused  to  create,"  as  Hinduism  says  of  the  Kumaras  and  Christian 
legend  of  the  Archangel  Michael)  — i.e.,  having  failed  to  incarnate  in  due  time 
—  the  bodies  predestined  for  them  became  defiled.  Hence  the  original  sin  of 
the  senseless  forms  and  the  punishment  of  the  Egos.  What  is  meant  by  the  re- 
bellious angels  being  hurled  down  into  Hell  is  simply  explained  by  these  pure 
Spirits  or  Egos  being  imprisoned  in  bodies  of  unclean  matter,  flesh. 


138  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

nothing  in  its  separate  parts,  yet  of  the  greatest  importance 
in  its  collectivity  or  series  of  lives.  In  any  case,  almost  every 
individual  life  is,  in  its  full  development,  a  sorrow.  And  are 
we  to  believe  that  poor  helpless  man,  after  being  tossed  about 
like  a  piece  of  rotten  timber  on  the  angry  billows  of  life,  is, 
if  he  prove  too  weak  to  resist  them,  to  be  punished  by  a  scuip- 
iternity  of  damnation,  or  even  a  temporary  punishment? 
Never !  Whether  a  great  or  an  average  sinner,  good  or  bad, 
guilty  or  innocent,  once  delivered  of  the  burden  of  physical 
life,  the  tired  and  worn-out  Manu,  or  "  thinking  Ego,"  has 
won  the  right  to  a  period  of  absolute  rest  and  bliss.  The 
same  unerringly  wise  and  just,  rather  than  merciful,  Law 
which  inflicts  upon  the  incarnated  Ego  the  karmic  punish- 
ment for  every  sin  committed  during  the  preceding  life  on 
earth  has  provided  for  the  now  disembodied  Entity  a  long 
lease  of  mental  rest,  and  the  entire  oblivion  of  every  sad 
event —  aye,  to  the  smallest  painful  thought  —  that  took 
place  in  its  last  life  as  a  personality,  leaving  in  the  soul-mem- 
ory nothing  but  the  reminiscence  of  that  which  was  bliss,  or 
which  led  to  happiness.  Plotinus,  who  said  that  our  body 
was  the  true  river  of  Lethe,  for  "  souls  plunged  into  it  forget 
all,"  meant  more  than  he  said.  For,  as  our  terrestrial  body 
on  earth  is  like  Lethe,  so  is  our  celestial  body  in  Devachan, 
and  much  more. 

Inq.  Then  am  I  to  understand  that  the  murderer,  the  transgressor  of  law 
divine  and  human  in  every  shape,  is  allowed  to  go  unpunished? 

ThEo.  Who  ever  said  that?  Our  philosophy  has  a  doctrine 
of  punishment  as  stern  as  that  of  the  most  rigid  Calvinist, 
only   far  more  philosophical   and  consistent  with   absolute 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  139 

justice.  No  deed,  no  sinful  thought  even,  will  go  unpunished. 
In  fact,  the  latter  are  even  more  severely  punished  than  the 
former,  as  a  thought  is  far  more  potent  in  creating  evil  re- 
sults than  deeds.'*''  We  believe  in  an  unerring  law  of  Retrib- 
ution, called  Karma,  which  asserts  itself  in  a  natural  concat- 
enation of  causes  and  their  unavoidable  results. 

Inq.     And  how,  or  where,  does  it  act? 

Theo.  Every  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  saith  Wisdom  in  the 
gospel;  every  action,  good  or  bad,  is  a  prolific  parent,  saith 
the  Wisdom  of  the  Ages.  Put  the  two  together  and  you  will 
find  the  "  why."  After  allowing  the  Soul,  when  escaped 
from  the  pangs  of  personal  life,  a  sufficient  —  aye,  a  hund- 
redfold —  compensation.  Karma,  with  its  army  of  skandhas, 
waits  at  the  threshold  of  Devachan,  whence  the  Bgo  re- 
emerges  to  assume  a  new  incarnation.  It  is  at  this  moment 
that  the  future  destiny  of  the  now  rested  Ego  trembles  in  the 
scales  of  just  Retribution,  as  it  now  falls  once  again  under 
the  sway  of  active  karmic  law.  It  is  in  this  rebirth  which  is 
ready  for  it  —  a  rebirth  selected  and  prepared  by  this  mys- 
terious, inexorable,  but,  in  the  equity  and  wisdom  of  its  de- 
crees, infallible  LAW  —  that  the  sins  of  the  previous  life  of 
the  Ego  are  punished.  Only  it  is  into  no  imaginary  Hell, 
with  theatrical  flames  and  ridiculous  tailed  and  horned  devils, 
that  the  Ego  is  cast,  but  verily  onto  this  earth,  the  plane  and 
region  of  his  sins,  where  he  will  have  to  atone  for  every  bad 
thought  and  deed.  As  he  has  sown,  so  will  he  reap.  Rein- 
carnation will  gather  around  him  all  those  other  Egos  who 

44.  "  But  I  say  unto  you,  That  whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her  hath 
committed  adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart."     (Matt.,  v,  28.) 


140  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

have  suffered,  whether  directly  or  indirectly,  at  the  hands, 
or  even  through  the  unconscious  instrumentality,  of  the  past 
personality.  They  will  be  thrown  by  Nemesis  in  the  way  of 
the  nezv  man,  concealing  the  old,  the  eternal  Ego,  and  .  .  . 

Inq.  But  where  is  the  equity  you  speak  of,  since  these  new  "personalities" 
are  not  aware  of  having  sinned  or  been  sinned  against? 

Theo.  Has  the  coat  torn  to  shreds  from  the  back  of  the  man 
who  stole  it,  by  another  man  who  was  robbed  of  it  and  recog- 
nizes his  property,  to  be  regarded  as  fairly  dealt  with  ?  The 
new  ''personality"  is  no  better  than  a  fresh  suit  of  clothes,  with 
its  specific  characteristics,  color,  form  and  qualities ;  but  the 
real  man  who  wears  it  is  the  same  culprit  as  of  old.  It  is  the 
individuality  which  suffers  through  its  "personality."  And 
it  is  this,  and  this  alone,  that  can  account  for  the  terrible 
seeming  injustice  in  the  distribution  of  lots  in  life  to  man. 
When  your  modern  philosophers  will  have  succeeded  in  show- 
ing us  good  reason  why  so  many  apparently  innocent  and 
good  men  are  born  only  to  suffer  during  a  whole  lifetime; 
why  so  many  are  born  poor  unto  starvation  in  the  slums  of 
great  cities,  abandoned  by  fate  and  men;  why,  while  these 
are  born  in  the  gutter,  others  open  their  eyes  to  the  light  in 
palaces;  why  a  noble  birth  and  fortune  seem  often  given  to 
the  worst  of  men  and  only  rarely  to  the  worthy;  why  there 
are  beggars  whose  inner  selves  are  peers  to  the  highest  and 
noblest  of  men  —  when  this,  and  much  more,  is  satisfactorily 
explained  by  either  your  philosophers  or  theologians,  then 
only,  but  not  till  then,  you  will  have  the  right  to  reject  the 
theory  of  Reincarnation.  The  highest  and  grandest  poets 
have  dimly  perceived  this  truth  of  truths.     Shelley  believed 


THE    KHY    TO    THBOSOPHY  ui 

in  it;  Shakespeare  must  have  thought  of  it  when  writing  on 
the  worthlessness  of  birth.     Remember  his  words : 

Why  should  my  birth  keep  down  my  mounting  spirit? 

Are  not  all  creatures  subject  unto  time? 

There's  legions  now  of  beggars  on  the  earth, 

That  their  original  did  spring  from  kings, 

And  many  monarchs  now,  whose  fathers  were 

The  riffraff  of  their  age. 

Alter  the  word  "  fathers  "  into  Egos,  and  you  will  have  the 
truth. 


142  THB    KEY    TO    THUOSOPHY 


IX 

ON  KAMALOKA  AND  DEVACHAN 


ON  THB  PATH  OF  THE  LOWER  "PRINCIPLES" 
Inq.     You  spoke  of  Kamaloka;  what  is  it? 

Theo.  When  the  man  dies  his  three  lower  principles  leave  him 
forever  —  i.e.,  body,  life  and  the  vehicle  of  the  latter,  the 
astral  body  or  the  double  of  the  living  man.  And  then  his 
four  principles  —  the  central  or  middle  principle  (the  animal 
soul  or  Kama  Rupa),  with  what  it  has  assimilated  from  the 
lower  Manas  and  the  higher  triad  —  find  themselves  in  Ka- 
maloka. The  latter  is  an  astral  locality,  the  limhus  of  schol- 
astic theology,  the  Hades  of  the  ancients,  and,  strictly  speak- 
ing, a  locality  only  in  a  relative  sense.  It  has  neither  a  de- 
finite area  nor  boundary,  but  exists  zvithin  subjective  space, 
i.  e.,  is  beyond  our  sensuous  perceptions.  Still  it  exists,  and 
it  is  there  that  the  astral  eidolons  of  all  the  beings  that  have 
lived,  animals  included,  await  their  second  death.  For  the 
animals  it  comes  with  the  disintegration  and  the  entire  fading 
out  of  their  astral  particles  to  the  last.  For  the  human  eid- 
olon it  begins  when  the  Atma-Buddhi-Manasic  triad  is  said 
to  "separate"  itself  from  its  lower  principles,  or  the  reflec- 
tion of  the  ex-personality,  by  falling  into  the  Devachanic 
state. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  143 

Inq.     And  what  happens  after  this? 

Theo.  Then  the  Kama-rilpic  phantom,  remaining  bereft  of  its 
informing,  thinking  principle,  the  higher  Manas,  and  the 
lower  aspect  of  the  latter,  the  animal  intelligence,  no  longer 
receiving  light  from  the  higher  mind,  and  no  longer  having 
a  physical  brain  to  work  through,  collapses. 

Inq.     In  what  way? 

Theo.  Well,  it  falls  into  the  state  of  the  frog  when  certain  por- 
tions of  its  brain  are  taken  out  by  the  vivisector.  It  can 
think  no  more,  even  on  the  lowest  animal  plane.  Hence- 
forth it  is  no  longer  even  the  lower  Manas,  since  this 
"  lower  "  is  nothing  without  the  "  higher." 

Inq.  And  is  it  this  nonentity  which  we  find  materializing  in  seance-rooms 
with  mediums? 

Theo.  It  is  this  nonentity  —  a  true  nonentity,  however,  only  as 
to  reasoning  and  cogitating  powers ;  still  an  Entity,  however 
astral  and  fluidic.  This  is  shown  in  certain  cases  when  this 
entity,  being  magnetically  and  unconsciously  drawn  toward  a 
medium,  is  revived  for  a  time  and  lives  in  him  by  proxy,  so 
to  speak.  This  "spook,"  or  the  Kama  Rijpa,  may  be  com- 
pared with  the  jellyfish,  which  has  an  ethereal  gelatinous  ap- 
pearance so  long  as  it  is  in  its  own  element,  or  water  (the 
mcdiiun's  specific  AURA) ;  no  sooner  is  it  thrown  out  of  the 
water,  however,  than  it  dissolves  in  the  hand  or  on  the  sand, 
especially  in  sunlight.  In  the  medium's  Aura  it  lives  a  kind 
of  vicarious  life,  and  reasons  and  speaks  either  through  the 
medium's  brain  or  those  of  other  persons  present.  But  this 
would  lead  us  too  far,  and  upon  other  people's  grounds, 


144  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

whereon  I  have  no  desire  to  trespass.  Let  us  keep  to  the  sub- 
ject of  Reincarnation. 

Inq.  What  of  the  latter?  How  long  does  the  incarnating  Ego  remain  in 
the  Devachanic  state? 

Thko.  This,  we  are  taught,  depends  on  the  degree  of  spirituaHty 
and  the  merit  or  demerit  of  the  last  incarnation.  The  aver- 
age time  is  from  ten  to  fifteen  centuries,  as  I  have  already 
told  you. 

Inq.  But  why  could  not  this  Ego  manifest  and  communicate  with  mortals 
as  Spiritualists  will  have  it?  What  is  there  to  prevent  a  mother  from 
communicating  with  the  children  she  left  on  earth,  a  husband  with 
his  wife,  and  so  on?  It  is  a  most  consoling  belief,  I  must  confess; 
nor  do  I  wonder  that  those  who  believe  in  it  are  so  averse  to  give  it  up. 

Thko.  Nor  are  they  forced  to,  unless  they  happen  to  prefer 
truth  to  fiction,  however  "consoling."  Uncongenial  our  doc- 
trines may  be  to  Spiritualists ;  yet  nothing  of  what  we  believe 
in  and  teach  is  half  as  selfish  and  cruel  as  what  they  preach. 

Inq.     I  do  not  understand  you.     What  is  selfish? 

Thko.  Their  doctrine  of  the  return  of  spirits,  the  real  ''person- 
alities," as  they  say;  and  I  will  tell  you  why.  If  Devachan 
—  call  it  "paradise,"  if  you  like;  a  "place  of  bliss  and  of 
supreme  felicity,"  if  it  is  anything  —  is  such  a  place,  or  say 
state,  logic  tells  us  that  no  sorrow,  nor  even  a  shade  of  pain, 
can  be  experienced  therein.  "  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears" 
from  the  eyes  of  those  in  paradise,  we  read  in  the  book  of 
many  promises.  And  if  the  "  spirits  of  the  dead  "  are  able 
to  return  and  see  all  that  is  going  on  on  earth,  and  especially 
in  their  homes,  what  kind  of  bliss  can  be  in  store  for  them  ? 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  145 

WHY   THEOSOPHISTS  DO  NOT  BELIEVE  IN   THE  RETURN  OF  PURE 

"SPIRITS" 

Inq.     What  do  you  mean?     Why  should  this  interfere  with  their  bliss? 

ThEo.  It  is  quite  simple ;  let  us  take  an  instance.  A  mother  dies, 
leaving  behind  her  little  helpless  children  whom  she  adores ; 
perhaps  a  beloved  husband  also.  We  say  that  her  "spirit" 
or  Bgo  —  that  individuality  which  is  now  wholly  impreg- 
nated, for  the  entire  Devachanic  period,  with  the  noblest  feel- 
ings held  by  its  late  personality,  with  love  for  her  children, 
pity  for  those  who  suffer,  and  so  on  —  is  now  entirely  separ- 
ated from  the  "  vale  of  tears ;"  that  its  future  bliss  consists 
in  the  blessed  ignorance  of  all  the  woes  it  left  behind.  Spir- 
itualists, on  the  contrary,  say  that  it  is  as  vividly  aware  of 
them,  and  more  so  than  before,  for  "  spirits  see  more  than 
mortals  in  the  flesh  do."  We  say  that  the  bliss  of  the  Dez'a- 
chani  consists  in  its  complete  conviction  that  it  has  never  left 
the  earth,  and  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  death  at  all ;  that 
the  post-mortem  spiritual  consciousness  of  the  mother  will 
cause  her  to  think  that  she  lives  surrounded  by  her  children 
and  all  those  whom  she  loved;  that  no  gap,  no  link,  will  be 
missing  to  make  her  disembodied  state  the  most  perfect  and 
absolute  happiness.  The  Spiritualists  deny  this  point-blank. 
According  to  their  doctrine,  unfortunate  man  is  not  liberated 
even  by  death  from  the  sorrows  of  this  life.  Not  a  drop 
from  the  life-cup  of  pain  and  suffering  will  miss  his  lips; 
and  nolens  volens,  since  he  sees  everything  then,  shall  he 
drink  it  to  the  bitter  dregs.  Thus  the  loving  wife,  who  dur- 
ing her  lifetime  was  ready  to  save  her  husband  sorrow  at  the 
price  of  her  heart's  blood,  is  now  doomed  to  see,  in  utter  help- 
lessness, his  despair,  and  to  register  every  hot  tear  he  sheds 


146  THB    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

for  her  loss.  Worse  than  that,  she  may  see  the  tears  dry  too 
soon,  and  another  beloved  face  smile  on  him,  the  father  of 
her  children ;  find  another  woman  replacing  her  in  his  affec- 
tions; doomed  to  hear  her  children  give  the  holy  name  of 
''mother"  to  one  indifferent  to  them,  and  to  see  those  little 
ones  neglected,  if  not  ill-treated.  According  to  this  doctrine, 
the  "gentle  wafting  to  immortal  life"  becomes  without  any 
transition  the  way  into  a  new  path  of  mental  suffering !  And 
yet  the  columns  of  the  Banner  of  Light,  the  veteran  journal 
of  the  American  Spiritualists,  are  filled  with  messages  from 
the  dead,  the  "dear  departed  ones,"  who  all  write  to  say  how 
very  happy  they  are!  Is  such  a  state  of  knowledge  consist- 
ent with  bliss  ?  Then  "  bliss  "  stands,  in  such  a  case,  for  the 
greatest  curse,  and  orthodox  damnation  must  be  a  relief  in 
comparison  to  it ! 

Inq.  But  how  does  your  theory  avoid  this?  How  can  you  reconcile  the 
theory  of  the  Soul's  omniscience  with  its  blindness  to  that  which  is 
taking  place  on  earth? 

ThKo.  Because  such  is  the  law  of  love  and  mercy.  During 
every  Devachanic  period  the  Ego,  omniscient  as  it  is  per  sc, 
clothes  itself,  so  to  say,  with  the  reflection  of  the  personality 
that  was.  I  have  just  told  you  that  the  ideal  efBorescence  of 
all  the  abstract,  and  therefore  undying  and  eternal  qualities 
or  attributes  —  such  as  love  and  mercy,  the  love  of  the  good, 
the  true,  and  the  beautiful  —  which  ever  spoke  in  the  heart  of 
the  living  "personality,"  after  death  cling  to  the  Ego,  and 
therefore  follow  it  into  Devachan.  For  the  time  being,  then, 
the  Ego  becomes  the  ideal  reflection  of  the  human  being  it 
was  when  last  on  earth,  and  that  is  not  omniscient.  Were 
it  that,  it  would  never  be  in  the  state  we  call  Devachan  at  all. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  147 

Inq.     What  are  your  reasons  for  it? 

ThEO.  If  you  want  an  answer  on  the  strict  lines  of  our  philo- 
sophy, then  I  would  say  that  it  is  because  everything  is  illus- 
ion (mdyd)  outside  of  eternal  truth,  which  has  neither  form, 
color,  nor  limitation.  He  who  has  placed  himself  beyond  the 
veil  of  mdyd  —  and  such  are  the  highest  Adepts  and  Initi- 
ates —  can  have  no  Devachan.  As  to  the  ordinary  mortal,  his 
bliss  in  Devachan  is  complete.  It  is  an  absolute  oblivion  of  all 
that  gave  it  pain  or  sorrow  in  the  past  incarnation,  and  even 
oblivion  of  the  fact  that  such  things  as  pain  or  sorrow  exist 
at  all.  The  DevacJiani  lives  its  intermediate  cycle  between 
two  incarnations  surrounded  by  everything  it  had  aspired 
to  in  vain,  and  in  the  companionship  of  everyone  it  loved  on 
earth.  It  has  reached  the  fulfilment  of  all  its  soul-yearnings. 
And  thus  it  lives  throughout  long  centuries  an  existence  of 
unalloyed  happiness,  which  is  the  reward  for  its  sufferings 
in  earth-life.  In  short,  it  bathes  in  a  sea  of  uninterrupted 
felicity  spanned  only  by  events  of  still  greater  felicity  in 
degree. 

Inq.  But  this  is  more  than  simple  delusion;  it  is  an  existence  of  insane 
hallucinations ! 

Theo.  From  your  standpoint  it  may  be;  not  so  from  that  of 
philosophy.  Besides,  is  not  our  whole  terrestrial  life  filled 
with  such  delusions?  Have  you  never  met  men  and  women 
living  for  years  in  a  fool's  paradise  ?  And  because  you  should 
happen  to  learn  that  the  husband  whom  a  wife  adores,  and 
believes  herself  loved  in  turn  by  him,  is  untrue  to  her,  would 
you  go  and  break  her  heart  and  beautiful  dream  by  rudely 
awakening  her  to  the  reality?     I  think  not.     I  say  it  again, 


148  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

such  oblivion  and  hallucination,  if  you  call  it  so,  is  only  a  mer- 
ciful law  of  Nature  and  strict  justice.  At  any  rate,  it  is  a 
far  more  fascinating  prospect  than  the  orthodox  golden  harp 
with  a  pair  of  wings.  The  assurance  that  "  the  soul  that 
lives  ascends  frequently  and  runs  familiarly  through  the 
streets  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  visiting  the  patriarchs  and 
prophets,  saluting  the  apostles,  and  admiring  the  army  of 
martyrs,"  may  seem  of  a  more  pious  character  to  some. 
Nevertheless  it  is  a  hallucination  of  a  far  more  delusive  char- 
acter, since  mothers  love  their  children  with  an  immortal 
love,  we  all  know,  while  the  personages  mentioned  in  the 
*'  heavenly  Jerusalem  "  are  still  of  a  rather  doubtful  nature. 
But  I  would  still  rather  accept  the  "  new  Jerusalem,"  with 
its  streets  paved  like  the  show-windows  of  a  jeweler's  shop, 
than  find  consolation  in  the  heartless  doctrine  of  the  Spirit- 
ualists. The  idea  alone  that  the  intellectual  conscious  souls 
of  one's  father,  mother,  daughter,  or  brother  find  their  bliss 
in  a  "summer-land"  —  only  a  little  more  natural,  but  just 
as  ridiculous  as  the  "new  Jerusalem"  in  its  description  — 
would  be  enough  to  make  one  lose  every  respect  for  one's 
"  departed  ones."  To  believe  that  a  pure  spirit  can  feel 
happy  while  doomed  to  witness  the  sins,  mistakes,  treachery, 
and,  above  all,  the  sufiferings  of  those  from  whom  it  is  sev- 
ered by  death,  and  whom  it  loves  best,  without  being  able 
to  help  them,  would  be  a  maddening  thought. 

Inq.     There  is  something  in  your  argument;  I  confess  to  having  never 
seen  it  in  this  light. 

Theo.     Just  so;  and  one  must  be  selfish  to  the  core,  and  utterly 
devoid  of  the  sense  of  retributive  justice,  to  have  ever  im- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  149 

agined  such  a  thing.  We  are  with  those  whom  we  have  lost 
in  material  form,  and  far,  far  nearer  to  them  now  than  when 
they  were  alive.  And  it  is  not  only  in  the  fancy  of  the  Deva- 
chant,  as  some  may  imagine,  but  in  reality.  For  pure  divine 
love  is  not  merely  the  blossom  of  a  human  heart,  but  has  its 
roots  in  eternity.  Spiritual  holy  love  is  immortal,  and  Karma 
sooner  or  later  brings  all  those  who  loved  each  other  with 
such  a  spiritual  affection  to  incarnate  once  more  in  the  same 
family  group.  Again  we  say  that  love  beyond  the  grave, 
illusion  though  you  may  call  it,  has  a  magic  and  divine  po- 
tency which  reacts  on  the  living.  A  mother's  Ego  filled 
with  love  for  the  imaginary  children  it  sees  near  itself,  living 
a  life  of  happiness  as  real  to  it  as  when  on  earth,  will  ever 
cause  that  love  to  be  felt  by  the  children  in  flesh.  It  will  mani- 
fest in  their  dreams,  and  often  in  various  events  —  in  "pro- 
vidential "  protections  and  escapes ;  for  love  is  a  strong  shield, 
and  is  not  limited  by  space  or  time.  As  with  this  Devachanic 
"mother,"  so  with  the  rest  of  human  relationships  and  at- 
tachments, save  the  purely  selfish  or  material.  Analogy  will 
suggest  to  you  the  rest. 

Inq.  In  no  case,  then,  do  you  admit  the  possibility  of  the  communication 
of  the  living  with  the  disembodied  spirit? 

ThKo.  Yes,  there  is  a  case,  and  even  two  exceptions  to  the  rule. 
The  first  case  is  during  the  few  days  that  immediately  fol- 
low the  death  of  a  person,  and  before  the  Bgo  passes  into  the 
Devachanic  state.  But  whether  any  living  mortal  has  derived 
much  benefit  from  the  return  of  the  spirit  into  the  objective 
plane  is  another  question.  Perhaps  it  may  be  so  in  a  few  ex- 
ceptional cases,  when  the  intensity  of  the  desire  in  the  dying 


ISO  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

person  to  return  for  some  purpose  forced  the  higher  con- 
sciousness to  remain  azvake,  and  therefore  it  was  really  the 
individuality,  the  *'  Spirit,"  that  communicated.  But  in  gen- 
eral the  spirit  is  dazed  after  death,  and  falls  very  soon  into 
what  w^e  call  "  pre-devachanic  unconsciousness."  The  sec- 
ond exception  is  found  in  the  Nirmanakayas. 

Inq.     What  of  them?    What  does  the  name  signify  for  you? 

Thko.  It  is  the  name  given  to  those  who,  though  they  have  won 
the  right  to  Nirvana  and  cyclic  rest,''^  yet,  out  of  pity  for  man- 
kind and  those  they  have  left  on  earth,  renounce  this  nirvanic 
state.  Such  an  Adept,  or  saint,  or  whatever  you  may  call 
him,  believing  it  a  selfish  act  to  rest  in  bliss  while  mankind 
groans  under  the  burden  of  misery  produced  by  ignorance, 
renounces  Nirvana,  and  determines  to  remain  invisible  in 
spirit  on  this  earth.  Nirmanakayas  have  no  material  body, 
for  they  have  left  it  behind;  but  otherwise  they  remain  with 
all  their  principles,  even  in  astral  life,  in  our  sphere.  And 
such  can  and  do  communicate  with  a  few  elect  ones,  but 
surely  not  with  ordinary  mediums. 

Inq.  I  have  put  you  the  question  about  Nirmanakayas  because  I  read  in 
some  German  and  other  works  that  it  was  the  name  given  in  Northern 
Buddhistic  teachings  to  the  terrestrial  appearances  or  bodies  assumed 
by  Buddhas. 

ThEo.  This  is  so,  only  the  Orientalists  have  confused  this  ''  ter- 
restrial "  body  by  understanding  it  to  be  objective  and  physical 
instead  of  purely  astral  and  subjective. 

45.  Not  Devachan,  as  the  latter  is  an  illusion  of  our  consciousness,  a  happy  dream, 
and  as  those  who  are  fit  for  Nirvana  must  have  lost  entirely  every  desire  or 
possibility  of  desire  for  the  world's  illusions. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  ISi 

Inq.     And  what  good  can  these  Nirmdnakayas  do  on  earth? 

Thdo.  Not  much,  as  regards  individuals,  as  they  have  no  right 
to  interfere  with  Karma,  and  can  only  advise  and  inspire 
mortals  for  the  general  good.  Yet  they  do  more  beneficent 
actions  than  you  imagine. 

Inq.  To  this  Science  would  never  subscribe,  not  even  modern  psychology. 
For  science  and  psychology,  no  portion  of  intelligence  can  survive  the 
physical  brain.     What  would  you  answer  them? 

Theo.  I  would  not  even  go  to  the  trouble  of  answering,  but 
would  simply  say,  in  the  words  given  to  "  M.  A.  Oxon.": 

Intelligence  is  perpetuated  after  the  body  is  dead.  Though  it  is  not 
a  question  of  the  brain  only.  ...  It  is  reasonable  to  propound  the  in- 
destructibility of  the  human  spirit  from  what  we  know."*^ 

Inq.     But  "  M.  A.  Oxon."  is  a  Spiritualist? 

Theo.  Quite  so,  and  the  only  true  Spiritualist  I  know  of,  though 
we  may  still  disagree  from  him  on  many  a  minor  question. 
Apart  from  this,  no  Spiritualist  comes  nearer  to  the  occult 
truths  than  he  does.  Like  any  one  of  us,  he  speaks  inces- 
santly "of  the  surface  dangers  that  beset  the  ill-equipped, 
feather-headed  muddler  with  the  occult,  who  crosses  the 
threshold  without  counting  the  cost.'"*^  Our  only  disagree- 
ment rests  in  the  question  of  "  spirit  identity."  Otherwise, 
I,  for  one,  almost  entirely  agree  with  him,  and  accept  the 
three  propositions  he  embodied  in  his  address  of  July,  1884. 
It  is  this  eminent  Spiritualist,  rather,  who  disagrees  from  us, 
not  we  from  him. 

46.  Spirit  Identity,  p.  69. 

47.  "  Some  things  that  I  do  know  of  Spiritualism,  and  some  that  1  do  not." 


1S2  THE    KEY    TO    TH  BO  SOPHY 

Inq.     What  are  these  propositions? 
Theo.     They  are  as  follows: 

1.  That  there  is  a  Hfe  coincident  with,  and  independent  of,  the 
physical  Hfe  of  the  body, 

2.  That,  as  a  necessary  corollary,  this  life  extends  beyond  the 
life  of  the  body.     [We  say  it  extends  throughout  Devachan.] 

3.  That  there  is  communication  between  the  denizens  of  that 
state  of  existence  and  those  of  the  world  in  which  we  now  live. 

All  depends,  you  see,  on  the  minor  and  secondary  aspects 
of  these  fundamental  propositions.  Everything  depends  on 
the  views  we  take  of  Spirit  and  Soul,  or  Individuality  and 
personality.  Spiritualists  confuse  the  two  "into  one;"  we 
separate  them,  and  say  that,  with  the  exceptions  above  enum- 
erated, no  Spirit  will  revisit  the  earth,  though  the  animal 
soul  may.  But  let  us  return  once  more  to  our  direct  sub- 
ject, the  Skandhas. 

Inq.  I  begin  to  understand  better  now.  It  is  the  spirit,  so  to  say,  of 
those  Skandhas  which  are  the  most  ennobling,  which  attaching  itself 
to  the  incarnating  Ego,  survives  and  is  added  to  the  stock  of  its 
angelic  experiences.  And  it  is  the  attributes  connected  with  the  mat- 
erial Skandhas,  with  selfish  and  personal  motives,  which,  disappearing 
from  the  field  of  action  between  two  incarnations,  reappear  at  the 
subsequent  incarnation  as  Karmic  results  to  be  atoned  for;  and  there- 
fore the  Spirit  will  not  leave  Devachan.     Is  it  so? 

ThEo.  Very  nearly  so.  If  you  add  to  this  that  the  law  of  re- 
tribution, or  Karma,  rewarding  the  highest  and  most  spirit- 
ual attributes  in  Devachan,  never  fails  to  reward  them  again 
on  earth  by  giving  them  a  further  development,  and  by  furn- 
ishing the  Ego  with  a  body  fitted  for  it,  then  you  will  be 
quite  correct. 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  153 

A  FEW  WORDS  ABOUT  THE  SK  AN  DMAS 

Inq.  What  becomes  of  the  other,  the  lower  Skandhas  of  the  personaHty, 
after  the  death  of  the  body?    Are  they  quite  destroyed? 

Theo.  They  are  and  yet  they  are  not  —  a  fresh  metaphysical 
and  occult  mystery  for  you.  They  are  destroyed  as  the 
working  stock  in  hand  of  the  personaHty;  they  remain  as 
Karmic  effects,  as  germs,  hanging  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
terrestrial  plane,  ready  to  come  to  life,  as  so  many  avenging 
fiends,  to  attach  themselves  to  the  new  personality  of  the  Ego 
when  it  reincarnates. 

Inq.  This  really  passes  my  comprehension,  and  is  very  difficult  to  under- 
stand. 

Theo.  Not  once  that  you  have  assimilated  all  the  details.  For 
then  you  will  see  that  for  logic,  consistency,  profound  phil- 
osophy, divine  mercy,  and  equity,  this  doctrine  of  Reincar- 
nation has  not  its  equal  on  earth.  It  is  a  belief  in  a  perpetual 
progress  for  each  incarnating  Ego,  or  divine  soul,  in  an 
evolution  from  the  outward  into  the  inward,  from  the  mat- 
erial to  the  Spiritual,  arriving  at  the  end  of  each  stage  at 
absolute  unity  with  the  divine  Principle.  From  strength  to 
strength,  from  the  beauty  and  perfection  of  one  plane  to  the 
greater  beauty  and  perfection  of  another,  with  accessions 
of  new  glory,  of  fresh  knowledge  and  power,  in  each  cycle 
—  such  is  the  destiny  of  every  Ego,  which  thus  becomes  its 
own  savior  in  each  world  and  incarnation. 

Inq.     But  Christianity  teaches  the  same.     It  also  preaches  progression. 

TiTKO.  Yes,  only  with  the  addition  of  something  else.  It  tells 
us  of  the  impossibility  of  attaining  Salvation  without  the  aid 


154  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

of  a  miraculous  Savior,  and,  moreover,  dooms  to  perdition 
all  those  who  will  not  accept  the  dogma.  This  is  just  the 
difference  between  Christian  theology  and  Theosophy.  The 
former  enforces  belief  in  the  Descent  of  the  Spiritual  Ego 
into  the  Lower  Self;  the  latter  inculcates  the  necessity  of 
endeavoring  to  elevate  one's  self  to  the  Christos  or  Buddhi 
state. 

Inq.  By  teaching  the  annihilation  of  consciousness  in  case  of  failure,  how- 
ever, do  you  not  think  that  it  amounts  to  the  annihilation  of  Self, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  non-metaphysical? 

Theo.  From  the  standpoint  of  those  who  believe  in  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body  literally,  and  insist  that  every  bone,  every 
artery  and  atom  of  flesh  will  be  raised  bodily  on  the  judg- 
ment-day, of  course  it  does.  If  you  still  insist  that  it  is  the 
perishable  form  and  finite  qualities  that  make  up  immortal 
man,  then  we  shall  hardly  understand  each  other.  And  if 
you  do  not  understand  that,  by  limiting  the  existence  of  every 
Ego  to  one  life  on  earth,  you  make  of  Deity  an  ever-drunken 
Indra  of  the  Puranic  dead  letter,  a  cruel  Moloch,  a  god  who 
makes  an  inextricable  mess  on  earth,  and  yet  claims  thanks 
for  it,  then  the  sooner  we  drop  the  conversation  the  better. 

Inq.  But  let  us  return,  now  that  the  subject  of  the  Skandhas  is  disposed  of, 
to  the  question  of  the  consciousness  which  survives  death.  This  is 
the  point  which  interests  most  people.  Do  we  possess  more  know- 
ledge in  Devachan  than  we  do  in  Earth-life? 

Theo.  In  one  sense  we  can  acquire  more  knowledge  —  that  is, 
we  can  develop  further  any  faculty  which  we  loved  and 
strove  after  during  life,  provided  it  is  concerned  with  ab- 
stract and  ideal  things,  such  as  music,  painting,  poetry,  etc.. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  155 

since  Devachan  is  merely  an  idealized  and  subjective  con- 
tinuation of  earth-life. 

Inq.  But  if  in  Devachan  the  Spirit  is  free  from  matter,  why  should  it  not 
possess  all  knowledge? 

ThEo.  Because,  as  I  told  you,  the  Ego  is,  so  to  say,  wedded  to 
the  memory  of  its  last  incarnation.  Thus,  if  you  think  over 
what  I  have  said,  and  string  all  the  facts  together,  you  will 
realize  that  the  Devachanic  state  is  not  one  of  omniscience, 
but  a  transcendental  continuation  of  the  personal  life  just 
terminated.     It  is  the  rest  of  the  soul  from  the  toils  of  life. 

Inq.  But  the  scientific  materialists  assert  that  after  the  death  of  man  no- 
thing remains ;  that  the  human  body  simply  disintegrates  into  its  com- 
ponent elements ;  and  that  what  we  call  soul  is  merely  a  temporary 
self-consciousness  produced  as  a  by-product  of  organic  action,  which 
will  evaporate  like  steam.     Is  not  theirs  a  strange  state  of  mind? 

ThEo.  Not  at  all  strange,  as  far  as  I  see.  If  they  say  that  self- 
consciousness  ceases  with  the  body,  then  in  their  case  they 
simply  utter  an  unconscious  prophecy ;  for  once  that  they  are 
firmly  convinced  of  what  they  assert,  no  conscious  after-life 
is  possible  for  them.     For  there  arc  exceptions  to  every  rule. 


ON  POST-MORTEM  AND  POST-NATAL  CONSCIOUSNESS "^^ 

Inq.     But  if  human  self-consciousness  survives  death  as  a  rule,  why  should 
there  be  exceptions? 


48.  A  few  portions  of  this  chapter  and  of  the  preceding  were  published  in  Lucifer  in 
the  shape  of  a  "  Dialogue  on  the  Mysteries  of  the  After-life,"  in  the  January 
number,  1889.  The  article  was  unsigned,  as  if  it  were  written  by  the  editor, 
but  it  came  from  the  pen  of  the  author  of  the  present  volume. 


156  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

ThKo.  In  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  spiritual  world  no 
exception  is  possible.  But  there  are  rules  for  those  who  see, 
and  rules  for  those  who  prefer  to  remain  blind. 

Inq.  Quite  so,  I  understand.  This  is  but  an  aberration  of  the  bHnd  man, 
who  denies  the  existence  of  the  sun  because  he  does  not  see  it.  But 
after  death  his  spiritual  eyes  will  certainly  compel  him  to  see.  Is  this 
what  you  mean? 

ThEO.  He  will  not  be  compelled,  nor  will  he  see  anything.  Hav- 
ing persistently  during  life  denied  the  continuance  of  exist- 
ence after  death,  he  will  be  unable  to  see  it,  because  his  spir- 
itual capacity,  having  been  stunted  in  life,  cannot  develop 
after  death,  and  he  will  remain  blind.  By  insisting  that  he 
must  see  it,  you  evidently  mean  one  thing  and  I  another. 
You  speak  of  the  spirit  from  the  Spirit,  or  the  flame  from  the 
Klame  —  of  Atma,  in  short  —  and  you  confuse  it  with  the 
human  soul,  Manas.  .  .  .  You  do  not  understand  me ;  let  me 
try  to  make  it  clear.  The  whole  gist  of  your  question  is  to 
know  whether,  in  the  case  of  a  downright  materialist,  the 
complete  loss  of  self-consciousness  and  self-perception  after 
death  is  possible.  Is  it  not  so?  I  answer,  it  is  possible. 
Believing  firmly  in  our  Esoteric  Doctrine  —  which  refers  to 
the  post-mortem  period,  or  the  interval  between  two  lives  or 
births,  as  merely  a  transitory  state  —  I  say  that  whether  that 
post-mortem  interval  between  two  acts  of  the  illusionary 
drama  of  life  lasts  one  year  or  a  million,  it  may,  without  any 
breach  of  the  fundamental  law,  prove  to  be  just  the  same 
state  as  that  of  a  man  in  a  dead  faint. 

Inq.  But  since  you  have  just  said  that  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  after- 
death  state  admit  of  no  exceptions,  how  can  this  be? 


THE    KHY    TO    THBOSOPHY  157 

ThEo.  Nor  do  I  say  now  that  it  does  admit  of  an  exception. 
But  the  spiritual  law  of  continuity  applies  only  to  things 
which  are  truly  real.  To  one  who  has  read  and  understood 
Mundaka  Upanishad  and  Veddnta  Sara  all  this  becomes  very 
clear.  I  will  say  more:  it  is  sufficient  only  to  understand 
what  we  mean  by  Buddhi  and  the  duality  of  Manas  to  gain  a 
clear  perception  why  the  materialist  may  fail  to  have  a  self- 
conscious  survival  after  death.  Since  Manas,  in  its  lower 
aspect,  is  the  seat  of  the  terrestrial  mind,  it  can  therefore  give 
only  that  perception  of  the  Universe  which  is  based  on  the 
evidence  of  that  mind;  it  can  not  give  spiritual  vision.  It  is 
said  in  the  Eastern  school  that  between  Buddhi  and  Manas, 
the  Bgo,  or  Ishvara  and  Prajfia,''^  there  is  in  reality  no  more 
difference  than  hetiveen  a  forest  and  its  trees,  a  lake  and  its 
ivatcrs,  as  the  Mundaka  teaches.  One  or  a  hundred  trees 
dead  from  loss  of  vitality,  or  uprooted,  are  yet  incapable  of 
preventing  the  forest  from  being  still  a  forest. 

Inq.  But,  as  I  understand  it,  Buddhi  represents  in  this  simile  the  forest, 
and  Manas-Taijasa^°  the  trees.  And  if  Buddhi  is  immortal,  how  can 
that  which  is  similar  to  it  —  i.e.,  Manas-Taijasa  —  entirely  lose  its 
consciousness  till  the  day  of  its  new  incarnation?  I  can  not  under- 
stand it. 

ThEO.     You  cannot,  because  you  will  mix  up  an  abstract  repre- 

49.  Ishvara  is  the  collective  consciousness  of  the  manifested  deity,   Brahma  —  i.   e., 

the  collective  consciousness  of  the  Host  of  Dhyan  Chohans  of  The  Secret  Doc- 
trine; and  Prajna  is  their  individual  wisdom. 

50.  Taijasa  means  the  radiant  in  consequence  of  its  union  with  Buddhi  —  i.e.,  Manas, 

the  human  soul,  illuminated  by  the  radiance  of  the  divine  soul.  Tlierefore 
Manas-Taijasa  may  be  described  as  radiant  mind,  the  human  reason  lit  by  the 
light  of  the  spirit ;  and  Buddhi-Manas  is  the  revelation  of  the  divine  plus  human 
intellect  and  self-consciousness. 


158  THE    KEY    TO    THHOSOPHY 

sentation  of  the  whole  with  its  casual  changes  of  form.  Re- 
member that  if  it  can  be  said  of  Buddhi-Manas  that  it  is  un- 
conditionally immortal,  the  same  cannot  be  said  of  the  lower 
Manas,  still  less  of  Taijasa,  which  is  merely  an  attribute. 
Neither  of  these  —  neither  Manas  nor  Taijasa  —  can  exist 
apart  from  Buddhi,  the  divine  Soul,  because  the  first  (Manas) 
is,  in  its  lower  aspect,  a  qualificative  attribute  of  the  terres- 
trial personality,  and  the  second  (Taijasa)  is  identical  with 
the  first,  because  it  is  the  same  Manas,  only  with  the  light  of 
Buddhi  reflected  in  it.  In  its  turn,  Buddhi  would  remain 
only  an  impersonal  spirit  without  this  element  which  it  bor- 
rows from  the  human  soul,  which  conditions  and  makes  of  it, 
in  this  illusive  Universe,  as  it  were  something  separate  from 
the  universal  soul  for  the  whole  period  of  the  cycle  of  in- 
carnation. Say,  rather,  that  Buddhi-Manas  can  neither  die 
nor  lose  its  united  self-consciousness  in  Eternity,  nor  the 
recollection  of  the  previous  incarnations  in  which  the  two  — 
i.  e.,  the  spiritual  and  the  human  soul  —  had  been  closely 
linked  together.  But  it  is  not  so  in  the  case  of  a  materialist, 
whose  human  soul  not  only  receives  nothing  from  the  divine 
soul,  but  even  refuses  to  recognize  its  existence.  You  can 
hardly  apply  this  axiom  to  the  attributes  and  qualifications  of 
the  human  soul,  for  it  would  be  like  saying  that  because  your 
divine  Soul  is  immortal  therefore  the  bloom  on  your  cheek 
must  also  be  immortal,  whereas  this  bloom,  like  Taijasa,  is 
simply  a  transitory  phenomenon. 

Inq.     Do  I  understand  you  to  say  that  we  must  not  confuse  in  our  minds 
the  noumenon  with  the  phenomenon,  the  cause  with  its  effect? 

ThEo.     I  do  say  so,  and  repeat  that,  limited  to  Manas  or  the  hu- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  159 

man  soul  alone,  the  radiance  of  Taijasa  itself  becomes  a  mere 
question  of  time,  because  both  immortality  and  consciousness 
after  death  become,  for  the  terrestrial  personality  of  man, 
simply  conditioned  attributes,  as  they  depend  entirely  on  con- 
ditions and  beliefs  created  by  the  human  soul  itself  during 
the  life  of  its  body.  Karma  acts  incessantly;  we  reap  in 
our  after-life  only  the  fruit  of  that  which  we  have  ourselves 
sown  in  this. 

Inq.  But  if  my  Ego  can,  after  the  destruction  of  my  body,  become  plunged 
in  a  state  of  entire  unconsciousness,  then  where  can  be  the  punish- 
ment for  the  sins  of  my  past  life? 

ThEo.  Our  philosophy  teaches  that  Karmic  punishment  reaches 
the  Ego  only  in  its  next  incarnation.  After  death  it  re- 
ceives only  the  reward  for  the  unmerited  sufferings  endured 
during  its  past  incarnation.^*  The  whole  punishment  after 
death,  even  for  the  materialist,  consists,  therefore,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  reward,  and  the  utter  loss  of  the  consciousness 
of  one's  bliss  and  rest.  Karma  is  the  child  of  the  terrestrial 
Ego,  the  fruit  of  the  actions  of  the  tree  which  is  the  objective 
personality  visible  to  all,  as  much  as  the  fruit  of  all  the 
thoughts  and  even  motives  of  the  spiritual  "  I  " ;  but  Karma 
is  also  the  tender  mother  who  heals  the  wounds  inflicted  by 
her  during  the  preceding  life  before  she  begins  to  torture  the 

51.  Some  Theosophists  have  taken  exception  to  this  phrase,  but  the  words  are  those  of 
one  of  the  Teachers,  and  the  meaning  attached  to  the  word  "  unmerited  "  is  that 
given  above.  In  a  recent  pamphlet,  a  phrase,  criticized  subsequently  in  Lucifer, 
was  used  which  was  intended  to  convey  the  same  idea.  In  form,  however,  it 
was  awkward  and  open  to  the  criticism  directed  against  it;  but  the  essential  idea 
was  that  men  often  suffer  from  the  effects  of  the  actions  done  by  others,  effects 
which  thus  do  not  strictly  belong  to  their  own  Karma;  and  for  these  sufferings 
they  of  course  deserve  compensation. 


160  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Ego  by  inflicting  new  wounds.  If  it  may  be  said  that  there 
is  not  a  mental  or  physical  suffering  in  the  life  of  a  mortal 
which  is  not  the  direct  fruit  and  consequence  of  some  sin  in 
a  preceding  existence,  on  the  other  hand,  since  the  man  does 
not  preserve  the  slightest  recollection  of  it  in  his  actual  life, 
feels  himself  not  deserving  of  such  punishment,  and  therefore 
thinks  he  suffers  for  no  guilt  of  his  own,  he  is  thus  suffici- 
ently entitled  to  the  fullest  consolation,  rest  and  bliss  in  his 
post-mortem  existence.  Death  ever  comes  to  our  spiritual 
selves  as  a  deliverer  and  friend.  For  the  materialist  who, 
notwithstanding  his  materialism,  was  not  a  bad  man,  the  in- 
terval between  the  two  lives  will  be  like  the  unbroken  and 
placid  sleep  of  a  child  —  either  entirely  dreamless,  or  filled 
with  pictures  of  which  he  will  have  no  definite  perception; 
while  for  the  average  mortal  it  will  be  a  dream  as  vivid  as 
life,  and  full  of  realistic  bliss  and  visions. 

Inq.  Then  the  personal  man  must  always  go  on  suffering  blitidly  the  karmic 
penalties  which  the  Ego  has  incurred? 

ThEo.  Not  quite  so.  At  the  solemn  moment  of  death  every 
man,  even  when  death  is  sudden,  sees  the  whole  of  his 
past  life  marshaled  before  him  in  its  minutest  details.  For 
one  short  instant  the  personal  becomes  one  with  the  individual 
and  all-knowing  Bgo.  But  this  instant  is  enough  to  show 
him  the  whole  chain  of  causes  which  have  been  at  work 
during  his  life.  He  sees  and  now  understands  himself  as  he 
is,  unadorned  by  flattery  or  self-deception.  He  reads  his 
life,  remaining  as  a  spectator  looking  down  into  the  arena  he 
is  quitting;  he  feels  and  knows  the  justice  of  all  the  suffering 
that  has  overtaken  him. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  161 

Inq.     Does  this  happen  to  every  one? 

ThEo.  Without  any  exception.  Very  good  and  holy  men  see, 
we  are  taught,  not  only  the  life  they  are  leaving,  but  even 
several  preceding  lives  in  which  were  produced  the  causes 
that  made  them  what  they  were  in  the  life  just  closing. 
They  recognize  the  law  of  Karma  in  all  its  majesty  and 
justice. 

Inq.     Is  there  anything  corresponding  to  this  before  re-birth? 

ThEO.  There  is.  As  the  man  at  the  moment  of  death  has  a 
retrospective  insight  into  the  life  he  has  led,  so,  at  the  moment 
he  is  reborn  onto  earth,  the  Bgo,  awaking  from  the  state  of 
Devachan,  has  a  prospective  vision  of  the  life  which  awaits 
him,  and  realizes  all  the  causes  that  have  led  to  it.  He  real- 
izes them,  and  sees  futurity,  because  it  is  between  Devachan 
and  rebirth  that  the  Bgo  regains  his  full  inanasic  conscious- 
ness, and  re-becomes  for  a  short  time  the  god  he  was,  before 
in  compliance  with  karmic  law  he  first  descended  into  matter 
and  incarnated  in  the  first  man  of  flesh.  The  "  golden  thread  " 
sees  all  its  "  pearls  "  and  misses  not  one  of  them. 


WHAT  IS  REALLY  MEANT  BY  ANNIHILATION 

Inq.  I  have  heard  some  Theosophists  speak  of  a  golden  thread  on  which 
their  lives  were  strung.     What  do  they  mean  by  this? 

ThEo.  In  the  Hindu  sacred  books  it  is  said  that  that  which  un- 
dergoes periodical  incarnation  is  the  sutrdtmd,  which  means 
literally  the  ''Thread  Soul."  It  is  a  synonym  of  the  rein- 
carnating Ego  —  Manas  conjoined  with  Buddhi  —  which  ab- 


162  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

sorbs  the  manasic  recollections  of  all  our  preceding  lives.  It 
is  so  called  because,  like  the  pearls  on  a  thread,  so  is  the  long 
series  of  human  lives  strung  together  on  that  one  thread. 
In  one  of  the  Upanishads  these  recurrent  births  are  likened 
to  the  life  of  a  mortal  which  oscillates  periodically  between 
sleep  and  waking. 

Inq.  This,  I  must  say,  does  not  seem  very  clear,  and  I  will  tell  you  why. 
For  the  man  who  awakes,  another  day  commences,  but  he  is  the  same 
in  soul  and  body  as  he  was  the  day  before ;  whereas  at  every  incarn- 
ation a  full  change  takes  place  not  only  of  the  external  envelope,  sex 
and  personality,  but  even  of  the  mental  and  psychic  capacities.  The 
simile  does  not  seem  to  me  quite  correct.  The  man  who  arises  from 
sleep  remembers  quite  clearly  what  he  has  done  yesterday,  the  day 
before,  and  even  months  and  years  ago.  But  none  of  us  has  the 
slightest  recollection  of  a  preceding  life  or  of  any  fact  or  event  con- 
cerning it.  I  may  forget  in  the  morning  what  I  have  dreamed  during 
the  night;  still  I  know  that  I  have  slept,  and  have  the  certainty  that  I 
lived  during  sleep;  but  what  recollection  can  I  have  of  my  past  in- 
carnation until  the  moment  of  death?     How  do  you  reconcile  this? 

ThHo.  Some  people  do  recollect  their  past  incarnations  during 
life;  but  these  are  Buddhas  and  Initiates.  This  is  what  the 
Raja  Yogis  call  Samma  Sanihuddha,  or  the  knowledge  of  the 
whole  series  of  one's  past  incarnations. 

Inq.  But  we  ordinary  mortals  who  have  not  reached  Samma  Samhuddha, 
how  are  we  to  understand  this  simile? 

ThEo.  By  studying  it  and  trying  to  understand  more  correctly 
the  three  kinds  and  characteristics  of  sleep.  Sleep  is  a  gen- 
eral and  immutable  law  for  man  as  for  beast,  but  there  are 
different  kinds  of  sleep  and  still  more  different  dreams  and 
visions. 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  163 

Inq.  But  this  takes  us  to  another  subject.  Let  us  return  to  the  materiaUst 
who,  though  not  denying  dreams  —  which  he  could  hardly  do  —  yet 
denies  immortality  in  general  and  the  survival  of  his  own  individuality. 

Theo.  And  the  materialist,  without  knowing  it,  is  right.  In 
one  who  has  no  inner  perception  of  and  faith  in  the  immortal- 
ity of  his  soul,  that  soul  can  never  become  Buddhi-Taijasa, 
but  will  remain  simply  Manas,  and  for  Manas  alone  there  is 
no  immortality  possible.  In  order  to  live  a  conscious  life  in 
the  world  to  come,  one  has  first  of  all  to  believe  in  that  life 
during  the  terrestrial  existence.  On  these  two  aphorisms  of 
the  Secret  Science  all  the  philosophy  about  the  post-mortem 
consciousness  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  built.  The 
Ego  receives  always  according  to  its  deserts.  After  the  dis- 
solution of  the  body  there  commences  for  it  a  period  of  full 
awakened  consciousness,  or  a  state  of  chaotic  dreams,  or  an 
utterly  dreamless  sleep  undistinguishable  from  annihilation ; 
and  these  are  the  three  kinds  of  sleep.  If  our  physiologists 
find  the  cause  of  dreams  and  visions  in  an  unconscious  pre- 
paration for  them  during  the  waking  hours,  why  cannot  the 
same  be  admitted  for  the  post-mortem  dreams  ?  I  repeat  it : 
death  is  sleep.  After  death,  before  the  spiritual  eyes  of  the 
soul,  begins  a  performance  according  to  a  program  learned 
and  very  often  unconsciously  composed  by  ourselves:  the 
practical  carrying  out  of  correct  beliefs  or  of  illusions  which 
have  been  created  by  ourselves.  The  Methodist  will  be  a 
Methodist,  the  Mohammedan  a  Mohammedan,  at  least  for 
some  time,  in  a  perfect  fool's  paradise  of  each  man's  crea- 
tion and  making.  These  are  the  post-mortem  fruits  of  the 
tree  of  life.  Naturally  our  belief  or  unbelief  in  the  fact  of 
conscious  immortality  is  unable  to  influence  the  uncondi- 


164  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

tioned  reality  of  the  fact  itself,  once  that  it  exists;  but  the 
belief  or  unbelief  in  that  immortality  as  the  property  of  in- 
dependent or  separate  entities  cannot  fail  to  give  color  to 
that  fact  in  its  application  to  each  of  these  entities.  Now  do 
you  begin  to  understand  it  ? 

Inq.  I  think  I  do.  The  materialist,  disbelieving  in  everything  that  can 
not  be  proven  to  him  by  his  five  senses,  or  by  scientific  reasoning 
based  exclusively  on  the  data  furnished  by  these  senses,  in  spite  of 
their  inadequacy,  and  rejecting  every  spiritual  manifestation,  accepts 
life  as  the  only  conscious  existence.  Therefore  according  to  their 
beliefs  so  will  it  be  unto  them.  They  will  lose  their  personal  Ego, 
and  will  plunge  into  a  dreamless  sleep  until  a  new  awakening.  Is 
it  so? 

Thko.  Almost  so.  Remember  the  practically  universal  teach- 
ing of  the  two  kinds  of  conscious  existence  —  the  terrestrial 
and  the  spiritual.  The  latter  must  be  considered  real  from 
the  very  fact  that  it  is  inhabited  by  the  eternal,  changeless 
and  immortal  Monad;  whereas  the  incarnating  Ego  dresses 
itself  up  in  new  garments  which  are  entirely  different  from 
those  of  its  previous  incarnations,  and  in  which  all  except 
its  spiritual  prototype  is  doomed  to  a  change  so  radical  as 
to  leave  no  trace  behind. 

Inq.  How  so?  Can  my  conscious  terrestrial  "  I  "  perish  not  only  for  a 
time,  like  the  consciousness  of  the  materialist,  but  so  entirely  as  to 
leave  no  trace  behind  ? 

Thdo.  According  to  the  teaching,  it  must  so  perish  and  in  its 
entirety,  all  except  the  principle  which,  by  uniting  itself  with 
the  Monad,  thereby  becomes  a  purely  spiritual  and  inde- 
structible essence,  one  with  it  in  the  Eternity.  But  in  the 
case  of  an  out-and-out  materialist,  in  whose  personal  "  I  " 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  165 

no  Buddhi  has  ever  reflected  itself,  how  can  that  Buddhi 
carry  away  into  the  Eternity  one  particle  of  that  terrestrial 
personaHty  ?  Your  spiritual  "  I  "  is  immortal ;  but  from  your 
present  self  it  can  carry  away  into  Eternity  only  that  which 
has  become  worthy  of  immortality  —  namely,  the  aroma  alone 
of  the  flower  that  has  been  mown  down  by  death. 

Inq.     Well,  and  the  flower,  the  terrestrial  "  I  "  ? 

The:o.  The  flower,  as  all  past  and  future  flowers  which  have 
blossomed  and  will  have  to  blossom  on  the  mother-bough  — 
the  sutratma,  all  children  of  one  root  or  Buddhi  —  will  re- 
turn to  dust.  Your  present  "  I,"  as  you  yourself  know,  is 
not  the  body  now  sitting  before  me,  nor  yet  is  it  what  I 
would  call   Manas-Sijtratma,   but   SiJtratma-Buddhi. 

Inq.  But  this  does  not  explain  to  me,  at  all,  why  you  call  life  after  death 
immortal,  infinite  and  real,  and  the  terrestrial  life  a  simple  phantom 
or  illusion;  since  even  that  post-mortem  life  has  limits,  however  much 
wider  they  may  be  than  those  of  terrestrial  life. 

ThKo.  No  doubt.  The  spiritual  Ego  of  man  moves  in  eternity 
like  a  pendulimi  between  the  hours  of  birth  and  death.  But 
if  these  hours,  marking  the  periods  of  life  terrestrial  and  life 
spiritual,  are  limited  in  their  duration,  and  even  if  the  very 
number  of  such  stages  in  Eternity  between  sleep  and  aw^aken- 
ing,  illusion  and  reality,  has  its  beginning  and  its  end,  on  the 
other  hand  the  spiritual  pilgrim  is  eternal.  And  so  the  only 
reality  in  our  conception  is  the  hours  of  man's  post-morfein 
life,  when,  disembodied — during  the  period  of  that  pilgrimage 
which  we  call  "the  cycle  of  rebirths" — he  stands  face  to  face 
with  truth,  and  not  the  mirages  of  his  transitory  earthly  ex- 
istences.   Such  intervals,  however,  their  limitation  notwith- 


166  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

standing,  do  not  prevent  the  Ego,  while  ever  perfecting  itself, 
from  following  undeviatingly,  though  gradually  and  slowly, 
the  path  to  its  last  transformation,  when,  having  reached  its 
goal,  it  becomes  a  divine  being.  These  intervals  and  stages 
help  toward  this  final  result  instead  of  hindering  it ;  and  with- 
out such  limited  intervals  the  divine  Ego  could  never  reach 
its  ultimate  goal.  I  have  given  you  once  already  a  familiar 
illustration  by  comparing  the  Bgo,  or  the  individuality,  to  an 
actor,  and  its  numerous  and  various  incarnations  to  the  parts 
it  plays.  Will  you  call  these  parts  or  their  costumes  the  in- 
dividuality of  the  actor  himself?  Like  that  actor,  the  Ego 
is  forced,  during  the  cycle  of  necessity,  which  continues  up 
to  the  very  threshold  of  paranirvana,  to  play  many  parts 
which  may  be  unpleasant  to  it.  But  as  the  bee  collects  its 
honey  from  every  flower,  leaving  the  rest  as  food  for  the 
earthly  worms,  so  does  our  spiritual  individuality,  whether 
we  call  it  sutratma  or  Ego.  Collecting  from  every  terrestrial 
personality  into  which  Karma  forces  it  to  incarnate,  the  nec- 
tar alone  of  the  spiritual  qualities  and  self-consciousness,  it 
unites  all  these  into  one  whole,  and  emerges  from  its  chrysalis 
as  the  glorified  Dhyan  Chohan.  So  much  the  worse  for 
those  terrestrial  personalities  from  which  it  could  collect  no- 
thing. Such  personalities  assuredly  cannot  consciously  out- 
live their  terrestrial  existence. 

Inq.  Thus,  then,  it  seems  that,  for  the  terrestrial  personality,  immortality 
is  still  conditional.     Is,  then,  immortality  itself  not  unconditional? 

Theo.  Not  at  all.  But  immortality  cannot  touch  the  non-exist- 
ent; for  all  that  which  exists  as  Sat,  or  emanates  from  Sat, 
immortality  and  Eternity  are  absolute.     Matter  is  the  oppos- 


THE    KBY    TO    THBOSOPHV  167 

ite  pole  of  spirit,  and  yet  the  two  are  one.  The  essence  of 
all  this  —  I.  e.,  Spirit,  Force  and  Matter,  or  the  three  in  one  — 
is  as  endless  as  it  is  beginningless ;  but  the  form  acquired  by 
this  triple  unity  during  its  incarnations,  its  externality,  is 
certainly  only  the  illusion  of  our  personal  conceptions.  There- 
fore do  we  call  Nirvana  and  the  Universal  life  alone  a  reality, 
relegating  the  terrestrial  life,  its  terrestrial  personality  in- 
cluded, and  even  its  Devachanic  existence,  to  the  phantom 
realm  of  illusion. 

Inq.     But  why  in  such  a  case  call  sleep  the  reality,  and  waking  the  illusion? 

Theo.  It  is  simply  a  comparison  made  to  facilitate  the  grasping 
of  the  subject,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  terrestrial  concep- 
tions it  is  a  very  correct  one. 

Inq.  And  still  I  can  not  understand,  if  the  life  to  come  is  based  on  justice 
and  merited  retribution  for  all  our  terrestrial  suffering,  how  in  the 
case  of  materialists,  many  of  whom  are  really  honest  and  charitable 
men,  there  should  remain  of  their  personality  nothing  but  the  refuse  of 
a  faded  flower. 

ThEo.  Such  a  thing  was  never  stated.  No  materialist,  how- 
ever unbelieving,  can  die  forever  in  the  fulness  of  his  spir- 
itual individuality.  What  was  said  is  that  consciousness 
can  disappear  either  fully  or  partially  in  the  case  of  a  mater- 
ialist so  that  no  conscious  remains  of  his  personality  survive. 

Inq.     But  surely  this  is  annihilation? 

Theo.  Certainly  not.  One  can  sleep  a  dead  sleep  and  miss  sev- 
eral stations  during  a  long  railway  journey,  without  the 
slightest  recollection  or  consciousness,  and  awake  at  another 
station  and  continue  the  journey  past  innumerable  other  halt- 
ing-places until  the  end  of  the  journey  or  the  goal  is  reached. 


168  THB    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Three  kinds  of  sleep  were  mentioned  to  you  —  the  dreamless, 
the  chaotic  and  the  one  which  is  so  real  that  dreams  be- 
come full  realities  to  the  sleeper.  If  you  believe  in  the  latter, 
why  can  you  not  believe  in  the  former?  According  to  the 
after-life  a  man  has  believed  in  and  expected,  such  is  the  life 
he  will  have.  He  who  expected  no  life  to  come  will  have  an 
absolute  blank,  amounting  to  annihilation,  in  the  interval  be- 
tween the  two  births.  This  is  just  the  carrying  out  of  the 
program  we  spoke  of  —  a  program  created  by  the  material- 
ists themselves.  But  there  are  various  kinds  of  materialists, 
as  you  say.  A  selfish,  wicked  Egoist,  one  who  never  shed  a 
tear  for  any  one  but  himself,  thus  adding  entire  indifference 
to  the  whole  world  to  his  unbelief,  must,  at  the  threshold  of 
death,  drop  his  personality  forever.  This  personality  having 
no  tendrils  of  sympathy  for  the  world  around,  and  hence  no- 
thing to  attach  it  to  siltrdtma,  it  follows  that  with  the  last 
breath  every  connection  between  the  two  is  broken.  There 
being  no  Devachan  for  such  a  materialist,  the  sutratmd  will 
reincarnate  almost  immediately.  But  those  materialists  who 
erred  in  nothing  but  their  disbelief  will  oversleep  but  one 
station.  And  the  time  will  come  when  such  ex-materialists 
will  perceive  themselves  in  the  Eternity,  and  perhaps  repent 
that  they  lost  even  one  day,  one  station,  from  the  life  eternal. 

Inq.  Still  would  it  not  be  more  correct  to  say  that  death  is  birth  into  a 
new  life,  or  a  return  once  more  into  eternity? 

The;o.  You  may  if  you  like.  Only  remember  that  births  differ, 
and  that  there  are  births  of  "still-born"  beings,  which  are 
failures  of  nature.  Moreover,  with  your  fixed  Western  ideas 
about  material  life,  the  words  ''  living  "  and  ''  being  "  are 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  i69 

quite  inapplicable  to  the  pure  subjective  state  of  post-mortem 
existence.  Save  in  a  few  philosophers  who  are  not  read  by 
the  many,  and  who  themselves  are  too  confused  to  present  a 
distinct  picture  of  it,  your  Western  ideas  of  life  and  death 
have  become  so  narrow  that  on  the  one  hand  they  have  led  to 
crass  materialism,  and  on  the  other  to  the  still  more  material 
conception  of  the  other  life  which  the  Spiritualists  have  form- 
ulated in  their  "  Summer-land."  There  the  souls  of  men  eat, 
drink,  marry  and  live  in  a  paradise  quite  as  sensual  as  that 
of  Mohammed,  and  even  less  philosophical.  Nor  are  the  aver- 
age conceptions  of  the  uneducated  Christians  any  better;  if 
possible,  they  are  still  more  material.  What  between  trunc- 
ated angels,  brass  trumpets,  golden  harps  and  material  hell- 
fires,  the  Christian  heaven  seems  like  a  fairy  scene  at  a 
Christmas  pantomime. 

It  is  because  of  these  narrow  conceptions  that  you  find 
such  difficulty  in  understanding.  It  is  just  because  the  life 
of  the  disembodied  soul,  while  possessing  all  the  vividness 
of  reality,  as  in  certain  dreams,  is  devoid  of  every  grossly 
objective  form  of  terrestrial  life  that  the  Eastern  philoso- 
phers have  compared  it  with  visions  during  sleep. 


DEFINITE  WORDS  FOR  DEFINITE  THINGS 

Inq,  Don't  you  think  that  it  is  because  there  are  no  definite  and  fixed 
terms  to  indicate  each  "  Principle  "  in  man,  that  such  a  confusion  of 
ideas  arises  in  our  minds  with  respect  to  the  respective  functions  of 
these  "  Principles  "  ? 

Thko.  I  have  thought  of  this  myself.  The  whole  trouble  has 
arisen  from  our  having  begim  with  Sanskrit  names  in  our 


170  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

expositions  of  and  discussion  about  the  "  Principles,"  instead 
of  immediately  coining,  for  the  use  of  Theosophists,  their 
equivalents  in  English.     We  must  try  and  remedy  this  now. 

Inq.  You  will  do  well,  as  it  may  avoid  further  confusion ;  no  two  Theo- 
sophical  writers,  it  seems  to  me,  have  hitherto  agreed  to  call  the  same 
"  Principle  "  by  the  same  name. 

Theo.  The  confusion  is  more  apparent  than  real,  however.  I 
have  heard  some  of  our  Theosophists  expressing  surprise, 
and  criticizing  several  essays  speaking  of  these  "  principles." 
When  examined,  however,  there  was  no  worse  mistake  in 
them  than  the  use  of  the  word  "  soul  "  to  cover  the  three  prin- 
ciples, without  specifying  the  distinctions.  [One  of  the  cen- 
tral teachings  of  Theosophy  around  which  everything  of  hu- 
man interest  seems  to  revolve  is  that  of  the  Angel  and  the 
Demon  in  every  one.  Human  nature  is  dual;  man  stands 
between  the  higher  and  the  lower,  with  power  to  choose  to 
identify  himself  with  either.  In  his  ordinary  normal  life 
such  as  is  lived  today,  he  alternates  between  the  two  to 
greater  or  less  degree;  at  one  time  the  spiritual  nature  pre- 
dominates and  at  another  the  animal,  or  lower  nature,  or  the 
mere  mentality  divorced  from  all  higher  influences  of  the 
heart.  As  man  lives  more  the  life  of  the  lower  nature,  he 
centres  more  of  his  consciousness  in  the  body,  identifying 
himself  with  the  life  of  sensation  or  mere  intellect.  Corres- 
pondingly as  he  lives  a  more  spiritual  life  he  rises  above  the 
lower  nature  and  is  no  longer  enchained  by  physical  sensation 
or  enslaved  by  animal  impulse:  he  becomes  more  and  more 
freed  from  the  influence  of  physical,  material  life. 

Man  thus  appears  under  three  aspects:    (a)  the  ordinary 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  m 

human  condition  as  we  see  it  today,  between  the  higher  and 
the  lower,  swayed  now  by  this,  now  by  that;  {h)  above  this, 
a  state  of  relatively  spiritual  consciousness;  and  (c)  the  low 
animal  state.  We  may  name  these  three  conditions,  the  hu- 
man soul,  the  spiritual  soul,  and  the  animal  soul  respectively. 
But  there  is  a  state  or  condition  higher  than  these,  which  man 
approaches  as  his  nature  becomes  purified  from  all  the  lower 
elements,  becoming  spiritual  in  the  highest  sense,  and  which 
though  unknown  to  the  majority  of  men  is  yet  the  source  of 
their  highest  inspiration.  This  we  call  the  Higher  Self.  It 
is,  as  it  were,  the  Divine  Root  of  all  being,  existing,  as  the 
BJwgavad  Gifd  expresses  it,  "  alike  imperishable  in  all  per- 
ishable things;"  non-materializable ;  not  different  in  you  and 
me,  but  one  and  the  same  in  all  men,  the  essential  Divinity 
underlying  all  life.] 

The  "  Higher  Self  "  is  Atma,  and  of  course  it  is  non-mat- 
erializable. Even  more,  it  can  never  be  objective  under  any 
circumstances,  even  to  the  highest  spiritual  perception.  For 
Atman,  or  the  "  Higher  Self  "  is  really  Brahma,  the  Absol- 
ute, and  indistinguishable  from  it.  In  hours  of  samadhi  the 
higher  spiritual  consciousness  of  the  Initiate  is  entirely  ab- 
sorbed in  the  one  essence,  which  is  Atman,  and  therefore, 
being  one  with  the  whole,  there  can  be  nothing  objective  for 
it.  Now  some  of  our  Theosophists  have  got  into  the  habit 
of  using  the  words  "  Self  "  and  "  Ego  "  as  synonymous ;  of 
associating  the  term  "  Self  "  with  only  man's  higher  individ- 
ual or  even  personal  "  Self  "  or  Bgo,  whereas  this  term  ought 
never  to  be  applied  except  to  the  One  universal  Self.  Hence 
the  confusion.  When  speaking  of  Manas,  the  "causal  body," 
and  connecting  it  with  the  Buddhic  radiance,  we  may  call  it 


172 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


the  "  Higher  Ego."  never  the  "  Higher  Self."  For  even 
Buddhi,  the  "  Spiritual  Soul,"  is  not  the  SelF,  but  the  vehicle 
only  of  Self.  All  the  other  "  Selves  "  —  such  as  the  Indiv- 
idual self  and  personal  self  —  ought  never  to  be  spoken  or 
written  of  without  their  qualifying  and  characteristic  ad- 
jectives. The  term  **  Higher  Self  "  as  applied  by  some  to 
the  sixth  principle  or  Buddhi  (of  course  in  conjunction  with 
Manas,  as  without  such  union  there  would  be  no  thinking 
principle  or  element  in  the  spiritual  soul)  has  given  rise  to 
much  misunderstanding. 

To  avoid  henceforth  such  misapprehensions,  I  propose  to 
translate  the  occult  Eastern  terms  into  their  English  equival- 
ents, and  of¥er  these  for  future  use. 

f  Atma,  the  inseparable  ray  of  the  Universal 
and  One  SelE.  It  is  the  God  above,  more 
than  within,  us.  Happy  the  man  who  suc- 
ceeds in  saturating  his  inner  Ego  with  it! 

the  spiritual  soul  or  Buddhi,  in  close  union 
with  Manas,  the  mind-principle,  without 
which  the  former  is  no  Ego  at  all,  but  only 
the  Atmic  Vehicle. 


The  Higher 
Sele  is 


The  Spirit- 
ual divine 
Ego  is 


The  Inner, 
or  Higher 
"  Eeo  "  is 


Manas,  the  "  fifth  "  Principle,  so  called,  in- 
dependently of  Buddhi.  The  Mind-Principle 
is  only  the  Spiritual  Ego  when  merged  info 
one  with  Buddhi;  no  materialist  being  sup- 
posed to  have  in  him  such  an  Ego,  how- 
ever great  his  intellectual  capacities.  It  is 
the  permanent  Individuality  or  the  "  Rein- 
^carnating  Ego." 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV  m 


The  LowKR, 
or  PersonaIv- 
"  Ego  "  is 


the  physical  man  in  conjunction  with  his  lozv- 
er  Self  —  i.  e.,  animal  instincts,  passions,  de- 
sires, etc.  It  is  called  the  "  false  personal- 
ity," and  consists  of  the  lozver  Manas  com- 
bined with  Kama  Riipa,  and  operating 
through  the  physical  body  and  its  phantom 
or  "  double." 


The  remaining  ''principle,"  Prdna,  or  "  Life,"  is,  strictly 
speaking,  the  radiating  force  or  energy  of  Atma  —  as  the 
Universal  Life  and  the  Onk  Self  —  Its  lower,  or  rather  (in 
its  effects)  more  physical,  because  manifesting,  aspect. 
Prdna,  or  Life,  permeates  the  whole  being  of  the  objective 
Universe,  and  is  called  a  ''principle"  only  because  it  is  an 
indispensable  factor  and  the  deus  ex  viachind  of  the  living 
man. 

Inq.     This  division  will  answer  better,  I  believe,  as  it  is  so  much  simplified 
in  its  combinations.     The  other  is  much  too  metaphysical. 

ThEo.     If  outsiders  as  well  as  Theosophists  would  agree  to  it,  it 
would  certainly  make  matters  much  more  comprehensible. 


174  THE    KBY    TO    THBOSOPHY 


X 

ON  THE  NATURE  OF  OUR  THINKING  PRINCIPLE 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  EGO 


Inq.  I  have  heard  it  stated  that  the  Skandhas  —  memory  included  — 
change  with  every  new  incarnation.  And  yet  it  is  asserted  that  the 
reflection  of  the  past  Hves,  which,  we  are  told,  are  entirely  made  up 
of  Skandhas,  "must  survive."  At  the  present  moment  I  am  not  quite 
clear  in  my  mind  as  to  what  it  is  precisely  that  survives,  and  I  should 
like  to  have  it  explained.  What  is  it?  Is  it  only  that  "reflection/'  or 
those  Skandhas,  or  always  that  same  Ego,  the  Manas? 

Theo.  I  have  just  explained  that  the  reincarnating  Principle,  or 
that  which  we  call  the  divine  man,  is  indestructible  through- 
out the  life-cycle  —  indestructible  as  a  thinking  Bntity,  and 
even  as  an  ethereal  form.  The  "reflection"  is  only  the  spir- 
itualized remembrance,  during  the  Devachanic  period,  of 
the  ex-personality  —  Mr.  A  or  Mrs.  B  —  with  which  the  Bgo 
identifies  itself  during  that  period.  Since  the  Devachanic 
period  is  but  the  continuation  of  the  earth-life,  so  to  say  — 
the  very  acme  and  pith,  in  an  unbroken  series,  of  the  few 
happy  moments  in  that  now  past  existence  —  the  Ego  has  to 
identify  itself  with  the  personal  consciousness  of  that  earth- 
life  if  anything  shall  remain  of  it. 

Inq.  This  means  that  the  Ego,  notwithstanding  its  divine  nature,  passes 
every  such  period  between  two  incarnations  in  a  state  of  mental  ob- 
scuration or  temporary  insanity? 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  175 

The:o.  You  may  regard  it  as  you  like.  Believing  that,  outside 
the  One  ReaHty,  nothing  is  more  than  a  passing  iUusion  —  the 
whole  Universe  included  —  we  do  not  view  it  as  insanity,  but 
as  a  very  natural  sequence  or  development  of  the  terres- 
trial life.  What  is  life?  A  bundle  of  the  most  varied  ex- 
periences, of  daily  changing  ideas,  emotions  and  opinions. 
In  our  youth  we  are  often  enthusiastically  devoted  to  an  ideal, 
to  some  hero  or  heroine  whom  we  try  to  follow  and  revive ;  a 
few  years  later,  when  the  freshness  of  our  youthful  feelings 
has  faded  out  and  sobered  down,  we  are  the  first  to  laugh  at 
our  fancies.  And  yet  there  was  a  day  when  we  had  so  thor- 
oughly identified  our  own  personality  with  that  of  the  ideal  in 
our  mind  —  especially  if  it  was  that  of  a  living  being  —  that 
it  became  entirely  merged  and  lost  in  our  ideal.  Can  it  be 
said  of  a  man  of  fifty  that  he  is  the  same  being  that  he  was  at 
twenty?  The  inner  man  is  the  same ;  the  outward  living  per- 
sonality is  completely  transformed  and  changed.  Would  you 
also  call  these  changes  in  the  human  mental  states  insanity  ? 

Inq.  How  would  you  name  them,  and  especially  how  would  you  explain 
the  permanence  of  the  one  and  the  evanescence  of  the  other? 

Theo.  We  have  our  own  doctrine  ready,  and  to  us  it  oflfers  no 
difficulty.  The  clue  lies  in  the  double  consciousness  of  our 
mind,  and  also  in  the  dual  nature  of  the  mental  ''principle." 
There  is  a  spiritual  consciousness  —  the  manasic  mind  illum- 
ined by  the  light  of  Buddhi  —  which  subjectively  perceives 
abstractions,  and  a  sentient  consciousness  —  the  lower  man- 
asic light  —  inseparable  from  our  physical  brain  and  senses. 
The  latter  consciousness  is  held  in  subjection  by  the  brain  and 
physical  senses  and,  being  in  its  turn  equally  dependent  on 


176  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

them,  must  of  course  fade  out  and  finally  die  with  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  brain  and  physical  senses.  It  is  only  the 
spiritual  consciousness,  whose  root  lies  in  eternity,  which 
survives  and  lives  forever,  and  may  therefore  be  regarded  as 
immortal.     Everything  else  belongs  to  passing  illusions. 

Inq,     What  do  you  really  understand  by  illusion  in  this  case? 

ThEO.  [That  which  is  not  permanent,  the  transitory,  the  evan- 
escent and  phenomenal.  Under  this  category  will  come, 
therefore,  our  fleeting  earth-lives  which  are,  as  it  were,  the 
flowers  of  an  existence  whose  roots  are  in  eternity.  The  real 
world  is  the  world  of  causes,  of  noumena.  Just  as  in  the 
natural  world  at  the  appointed  season  the  plants,  whose  roots 
are  hid  in  the  earth,  send  up  their  shoots  and  leaves  and  then 
blossom  and  die,  so  the  soul,  the  root  of  whose  being  is  in  the 
inner  spiritual  world,  sends  out  its  shoots  and  blossoms  into 
the  world  of  material  physical  existence.  These  blossoms 
live  out  their  transitory  day  and  then  fade  away  and  die,  and 
the  life  essence,  just  as  in  the  plant,  is  indrawn  into  the 
root  to  be  again  sent  forth  in  due  season.  One  having  cog- 
nizance of  these  two  aspects  would  be  merely  justified  in  de- 
claring these  transitory  blossoms  of  earth-life  illusions,  and 
the  only  real  life,  that  which  lies  behind.] 

This  is  what  I  mean.  It  is  not  the  world  in  which  blos- 
som the  transitory  and  evanescent  flowers  of  personal  lives 
which  is  the  real  permanent  world,  but  that  one  in  which  we 
find  the  root  of  consciousness,  the  root  which  is  beyond  illus- 
ion and  dwells  in  the  eternity. 

Inq.     What  do  you  mean  by  the  root  dwelling  in  eternity? 

ThHo.     I  mean  by  this  root  the  thinking  entity,  the  Ego  which 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  m 

incarnates,  whether  we  regard  it  as  an  "Angel,"  a  "  Spirit "  or 
a  Force.  Of  that  which  falls  under  our  sensuous  perceptions 
only  what  grows  directly  from,  or  is  attached  to,  this  invisible 
root  above  can  partake  of  its  immortal  life.  Hence  every 
noble  thought,  idea  and  aspiration  of  the  personality  it  in- 
forms, proceeding  from  and  fed  by  this  root,  must  become 
permanent.  As  to  the  physical  consciousness,  as  it  is  a  qual- 
ity of  the  sentient  but  lower  "principle"  —  Kama  Rupa,  or 
animal  instinct,  illuminated  by  the  lower  mdnasic  reflection, 
or  the  human  soul  —  it  must  disappear.  It  is  the  higher  con- 
sciousness which  displays  activity  while  the  body  is  asleep 
or  paralyzed,  our  memory  registering  but  feebly  and  in- 
accurately—  because  automatically  —  such  experiences,  and 
often  failing  to  be  even  slightly  impressed  by  them. 

Inq.  But  how  is  it  that  Manas,  although  you  call  it  Nous,  a  "  God,"  is  so 
weak  during  its  incarnations  as  to  be  actually  conquered  and  fettered 
by  its  body  ? 

Theo.  I  might  retort  with  a  similar  question,  and  ask.  How  is 
it  that  he  whom  you  regard  as  "  God  of  gods  "  and  the  One 
living  God  is  so  zvcak  as  to  allow  evil  (or  the  Devil)  to  have 
the  best  of  him  as  much  as  of  all  his  creatures,  both  while  in 
heaven,  and  also  during  the  time  he  was  incarnated  on  this 
earth?  You  are  sure  to  reply  again.  This  is  a  mystery,  and 
we  are  forbidden  to  pry  into  the  mysteries  of  God.  But  as 
we  are  not  forbidden  to  do  so  by  our  religious  philosophy,  I 
answer  that,  unless  a  God  descends  as  an  Az'atcira,  no  divine 
principle  can  be  otherwise  than  cramped  and  paralyzed  by 
turbulent  animal  matter.  Heterogeneity  will  always  have 
the  upper  hand  over  homogeneity  on  this  plane  of  illusions ; 
and  the  nearer  an  essence  is  to  its  root-principle,  Primordial 


178  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Homogeneity,  the  more  difficult  it  is  for  the  latter  to  assert 
itself  on  earth.  Spiritual  and  divine  powers  lie  dormant  in 
every  human  Being;  and  the  wider  the  sweep  of  his  spiritual 
vision,  the  mightier  will  be  the  God  within  him.  But  few 
men  can  feel  that  God.  As  an  average  rule,  deity  is  always 
bound  and  limited  in  thought  by  earlier  conceptions,  ideas 
inculcated  in  us  from  childhood ;  therefore  it  is  so  difficult  for 
you  to  understand  our  philosophy. 

Inq.     And  is  it  this  Ego  of  ours  which  is  our  God? 

ThEo.  Not  at  all ;  ''  a  God  "  is  not  the  universal  deity,  but  only 
a  spark  from  the  one  ocean  of  Divine  Fire.  Our  God  within 
us,  or  "  our  Father  in  Secret "  is  what  we  call  the  "  Higher 
Self/'  Atmd.  Our  incarnating  Ego  was  a  God  in  its  origin, 
as  were  all  the  primeval  emanations  of  the  One  Unknown 
Principle.  But  since  its  "  fall  into  matter,"  having  to  in- 
carnate throughout  the  cycle,  in  succession,  from  first  to  last, 
it  is  no  longer  a  free  and  happy  God,  but  a  poor  pilgrim  on 
his  way  to  regain  that  which  he  has  lost.  I  can  answer  you 
more  fully  by  repeating  what  is  said  of  the  Inner  Man  in 
Isis  Unveiled  (ii,  593) : 

From  the  remotest  antiquity  mankind  as  a  whole  have  ahvays  been 
convinced  of  the  existence  of  a  personal  spiritual  entity  ivithin  the  per- 
sonal physical  man.  This  inner  entity  was  more  or  less  divine,  accord- 
ing to  its  proximity  to  the  crown.  .  .  .  The  closer  the  union,  the  more 
serene  man's  destiny,  the  less  dangerous  the  external  conditions. 
This  belief  is  neither  bigotry  nor  superstition,  only  an  ever-present, 
instinctive  feeling  of  the  proximity  of  another  spiritual  and  invisible 
world,  which,  though  it  be  subjective  to  the  senses  of  the  outward 
man,  is  perfectly  objective  to  the  Inner  Ego.  Furthermore,  they  be- 
lieved that  there  are  external  and  internal  conditions  which  affect  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  179 

determination  of  our  unll  upon  our  actions.  They  rejected  fatalism, 
for  fatalism  implies  a  blind  course  of  some  still  blinder  power.  But 
they  believed  in  destiny  (or  Karma),  which  from  birth  to  death  every 
man  is  weaving  thread  by  thread  around  himself,  as  a  spider  does  his 
cobweb;  and  this  destiny  is  guided  either  by  that  presence  termed  by 
some  the  guardian  angel,  or  by  our  more  intimate  astral  inner  man, 
who  is  but  too  often  the  evil  genius  of  the  man  of  flesh  (or  the  per- 
sonality). Both  these  lead  on  .  .  .  man,  but  one  of  them  must  pre- 
vail ;  and  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  invisible  affray  the  stern  and 
implacable  law  of  compensation  {and  retribution)  steps  in  and  takes  its 
course,  following  faithfully  the  fluctuations  (of  the  conflict).  When 
the  last  strand  is  woven,  and  man  is  seemingly  inwrapped  in  the  net- 
work of  his  own  doing,  then  he  finds  himself  completely  under  the 
empire  of  this  self-made  destiny.  It  then  either  fixes  him  like  the  inert 
shell  against  the  immovable  rock,  or  like  a  feather  carries  him  away 
in  a  whirlwind  raised  by  his  own  actions. 

Such  is  the  destiny  of  the  Man  —  the  true  Ego,  not  the 
Automaton,  the  shell  that  goes  by  that  name.  It  is  for  this 
Man  to  become  the  conqueror  over  matter. 


THE  COMPLEX  NATURE  OF  MANAS 

Inq.  But  you  wanted  to  tell  me  something  of  the  essential  nature  of  Manas, 
and  of  the  relation  in  which  the  Skandhas  of  physical  man  stand  to  it. 

Theo.  It  is  this  nature,  mysterious,  Protean,  beyond  any  grasp, 
and  almost  shadowy  in  its  correlations  with  the  other  prin- 
ciples, that  is  so  difficult  to  realize,  and  still  more  difficult  to 
explain.  Manas  is  a  "principle,"  and  yet  it  is  an  "  Entity  " 
and  individuality,  or  Ego.  He  is  a  "  God,"  and  yet  he  is 
doomed  to  an  endless  cycle  of  incarnations,  for  each  of  which 
he  is  made  responsible,  and  for  each  of  which  he  has  to  suffer. 


180  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOFHY 

All  this  seems  as  contradictory  as  it  is  puzzling;  nevertheless, 
there  are  hundreds  of  people,  even  in  the  West,  who  realize 
all  this  perfectly,  for  they  comprehend  the  Ego  not  only  in 
its  integrity,  but  in  its  many  aspects.  But  if  I  would  make 
myself  comprehensible,  I  must  begin  at  the  beginning  and 
give  you  the  genealogy  of  this  Ego  in  a  few  lines. 

Inq.     Say  on. 

Thko.  Try  to  imagine  a  "  Spirit,"  a  celestial  Being,  whether  we 
call  it  by  one  name  or  another,  divine  in  its  essential  nature, 
yet  not  pure  enough  to  be  one  with  the  Ahh,  and  consequently 
having  to  purify  its  nature  so  that  it  may  finally  reach  that 
goal.  It  can  do  so  only  by  passing  individually  and  person- 
ally, —  i.  e.,  spiritually  and  physically  —  through  every  ex- 
perience and  feeling  that  exists  in  the  manifold  or  differen- 
tiated Universe.  It  has,  therefore,  after  gaining  experience 
in  the  lower  kingdoms,  and  having  ascended  higher  and  still 
higher  with  every  rung  on  the  ladder  of  being,  to  pass 
through  every  experience  on  the  human  planes.  In  its  very 
essence  it  is  thought,  and  is  therefore  called  in  its  plurality 
Manasa-piitras,  or  "Sons  of  the  (Universal)  mind."  This 
individualized  "  Thought "  is  what  we  Theosophists  call  the 
real  human  Ego,  the  thinking  Entity  imprisoned  in  a  case  of 
flesh  and  bones.  This  is  surely  a  Spiritual  Entity,  not 
Matter,  and  such  Entities  are  the  incarnating  Egos,  in- 
forming the  bundle  of  animal  matter  called  mankind,  and 
whose  names  are  nidnasa,  or  "  Minds."  But  once  impris- 
oned or  incarnate,  their  essence  becomes  dual ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  rays  of  the  eternal  divine  Mind,  considered  as  individual 
entities,  assume  a  twofold  attribute:    (a)  their  essential,  in- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV  181 

herent,  characteristic,  heaven-aspiring  mind  or  higher  Manas, 
and  (b)  the  human  quaHty  of  thinking,  or  animal  cogitation, 
rationahzed  owing  to  the  superiority  of  the  human  brain,  the 
^oma-tending  or  lower  Manas.  One  gravitates  toward  Bud- 
dhi,  the  other  tends  downward  to  the  seat  of  passions  and 
animal  desires.  The  latter  have  no  room  in  Devachan,  nor 
can  they  associate  with  the  divine  triad  which  ascends  as  oni=: 
into  mental  bliss.  Yet  it  is  the  Ego,  the  Manasic  Entity, 
which  is  held  responsible  for  all  the  sins  of  the  lower  attrib- 
utes, just  as  a  parent  is  answerable  for  the  transgressions 
of  the  child  so  long  as  the  latter  remains  irresponsible. 

Inq.     Is  this  "child"  the  personality? 

Theo.  It  is.  But  when  it  is  stated  that  the  '^personality"  dies 
with  the  body,  that  is  not  all.  The  body,  which  was  only  the 
objective  symbol  of  Mr.  A  or  Mrs.  B,  fades  away  with  all 
the  material  skandhas,  which  are  the  visible  expressions  of  it. 
But  all  that  which  during  life  constituted  the  spiritual  bundle 
of  experiences,  the  noblest  aspirations,  undying  affections 
and  unselfish  nature  of  Mr.  A  or  Mrs.  B,  clings  for  the  time 
of  the  Devachanic  period  to  the  Ego,  and  the  Ego  is  identified 
with  the  spiritual  portion  of  the  terrestrial  Entity,  which  has 
now  passed  away  out  of  sight.  The  Actor  is  so  imbued  with 
the  role  he  has  lately  played  that  he  dreams  of  it  during  the 
whole  Devachanic  night,  and  this  7'isio}i  continues  until  the 
hour  strikes  for  him  to  return  to  the  stage  of  life  to  enact 
another  part. 

Inq.  But  how  is  it  that  this  doctrine,  which  you  say  is  as  old  as  thinking 
men,  has  found  no  room,  say,  in  Christian  theology? 

ThEo.     You  are  mistaken  —  it  has ;  only  theology  has  disfigured 


182  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

it  out  of  all  recognition,  as  it  has  many  other  doctrines. 
Theology  calls  the  Ego  the  Angel  that  God  gives  us,  at  the 
moment  of  our  birth,  to  take  care  of  our  Soul.  Theological 
logic,  instead  of  holding  that  "  Angel "  responsible  for  the 
transgressions  of  the  poor  helpless  "  Soul,"  makes  the  latter 
punishable  for  all  the  sins  of  both  flesh  and  mind !  It  is  the 
Soul,  the  immaterial  breath  of  God,  and  his  alleged  creation, 
which,  by  some  most  amazing  intellectual  jugglery,  is  doomed 
to  burn  in  a  material  hell  without  ever  being  consumed," 
while  the  "  Angel "  escapes  scot-free,  after  folding  his  white 
pinions  and  wetting  them  with  a  few  tears.  Aye,  these  are 
our  "  ministering  spirits,"  the  "  messengers  of  mercy  "  who 
are  sent,  Bishop  Mant  tells  us  — 

....  to  fulfil 
Good  for  salvation's  heirs ;  for  us  they  still 
Grieve  when  we  sin,  rejoice  when  we  repent. 

Yet  it  becomes  evident  that  if  all  the  bishops  the  world 
over  were  asked  to  define  once  for  all  what  they  mean  by 
Soul  and  its  functions,  they  would  be  as  unable  to  do  so  as  to 
show  us  any  shadow  of  logic  in  the  orthodox  belief ! 


THE  DOCTRINE  IS  TAUGHT  IN  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL 

Inq.  To  this  the  adherents  of  this  beHef  might  answer  that,  if  even  the 
orthodox  dogma  does  promise  the  impenitent  sinner  and  materiaHst 
a  bad  time  of  it  in  a  rather  too  realistic  Inferno,  it  gives  them,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  chance  for  repentance  to  the  last  minute.      Moreover, 

52.  Being  of  "  an  ashestos-Wkt  nature,"  according  to  the  eloquent  and  fiery  expression 
of  a  modern  English  Tertullian. 


THE    KBY    to    THnoSOPHV  183 

they  do  not  teach  annihilation,  or  loss  of  personality,  which  is  all  the 
same. 

ThEO.  If  the  Church  teaches  nothing  of  the  kind,  on  the  other 
hand,  Jesus  does;  and  that  is  something  to  those,  at  least, 
who  place  Christ  higher  than  Christianity. 

Inq.     Does  Christ  teach  anything  of  the  sort? 

Thko.  He  does;  and  every  well-informed  Occultist  and  even 
Kabalist  will  tell  you  so.  Christ,  or  the  fourth  Gospel  at  any 
rate,  teaches  Reincarnation  and  also  the  annihilation  of  the 
personality,  if  you  will  only  forget  the  dead  letter  and  hold  to 
the  esoteric  spirit.  Remember  verses  1  and  2  in  chapter  xv. 
of  St.  John.  What  does  the  parable  speak  about  if  not  of 
the  upper  triad  in  man  ?  Atma  is  the  Husbandman,  the  spir- 
itual Ego,  or  Biiddhi  (Christos),  the  Vine,  while  the  animal 
and  vital  soul,  the  personality,  is  the  "  branch."  "  I  am  the 
true  vine,  and  my  Father  is  the  Husbandman.  Every  branch 
in  me  that  beareth  not  fruit  he  taketh  away.  ...  As  the 
branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in  the  vine ; 
no  more  can  ye,  except  ye  abide  in  me.  I  am  the  Vine,  ye  are 
the  branches.  ...Ha  man  abide  not  in  me,  he  is  cast  forth 
as  a  branch,  and  is  withered"  —  and  cast  into  the  fire  and 
burned. 

Now  we  explain  it  in  this  way.  Disbelieving  in  the  hell- 
fires  which  theology  discovers  as  underlying  the  threat  to 
the  branches,  we  say  that  the  "  Husbandman  "  means  Atma, 
the  Symbol  for  the  infinite,  impersonal  Principle,^"'  while  the 

53.  During  the  Mysteries  it  is  the  hierophant,  the  "  Father,"  who  planted  the  Vine. 
Every  symbol  has  Seven  Keys  to  it.  The  discloser  of  the  Plcroma  was  always 
called  "  Father." 


184  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Vine    stands    for    the    Spiritual    Soul,    Christos,    and    each 
"  branch  "  represents  a  new  incarnation. 

Inq.     But  what  proofs  have  you  to  support  such  an  arbitrary  interpretation? 

Theo.  Universal  symbology  is  a  warrant  for  its  correctness  and 
that  it  is  not  arbitrary.  Hernias  says  of  "  God  "  that  he 
"  planted  the  Vineyard  "  —  i.  e.,  he  created  mankind.  In  the 
Kabalah  it  is  shown  that  the  Aged  of  the  Aged,  or  the  "  Long 
Face,"  plants  a  "vineyard,"  typifying  mankind,  and  a  "vine," 
meaning  Life.  The  Spirit  of  "  King  Messiah  "  is  therefore 
shown  as  washing  his  garments  in  tJie  zvine  from  above,  from 
the  creation  of  the  world.^"*  And  King  Messiah  is  the  Ego 
purified  by  zvashing  his  garments  —  i.  e.,  his  personalities  in 
rebirth  —  in  the  zvi7ie  from  above,  or  Buddhi.  Adam,  or 
A-Dam,  is  "  blood."  The  Life  of  the  flesh  is  in  the  blood  — 
nephesh,  soul  (Lev.  xvii.).  And  Adam  Kadmon  is  the  Only- 
Begotten.  Noah  also  plants  a  vineyard  —  the  allegorical 
hotbed  of  future  humanity.  As  a  consequence  of  the  adop- 
tion of  the  same  allegory,  we  find  it  reproduced  in  the  Codex 
Nasarcens.  Seven  vines  —  our  Seven  Races  with  their  seven 
Saviors  or  Buddhas  —  are  procreated.  These  seven  vines 
spring  from  Jukabar  Zivo,  and  Aebel  Zivo  waters  them.^' 
When  the  blessed  will  ascend  among  the  creatures  of  Light, 
they  shall  see  Javar  Zivo,  Lord  of  Li^K,  and  the  First  Vine.^^ 
These  kabalistic  metaphors  are  thus  naturally  repeated  in  the 
Gospel  according  to  St.  John  (xv,  1). 

Let  us  not  forget  that  —  even  according  to  those  philoso- 

54.  Zohar,  xl,  10. 

55.  Codex  Nazarceus,  Liber  Adami  Appellatus  —  a  Matth.  Norberg,  iii,  60,  61. 

56.  Ibid.,  ii,  281. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  185 

phies  which  ignore  our  septenary  division  —  in  the  human 
system  the  Ego,  or  thinking  man,  is  called  the  Logos,  or  the 
Son  of  Soul  and  Spirit.     ''  Manas  is  the  adopted  son  of  King 

and  Queen  "   (the  esoteric  equivalents  for 

Atma  and  Buddhi),  says  an  occult  work.  He  is  the  "man- 
god  "  of  Plato,  who  crucifies  himself  in  Space,  or  the  duration 
of  the  life-cycle,  for  the  redemption  of  Matter.  This  he  does 
by  incarnating  over  and  over  again,  thus  leading  mankind 
onward  to  perfection,  and  making  thereby  room  for  lower 
forms  to  develop  into  higher.  Not  for  even  one  life  does  he 
cease  progressing  himself  and  also  helping  all  physical  Nat- 
ure to  progress;  even  the  occasional,  very  rare  event  of  his 
losing  one  of  his  personalities  —  in  the  case  of  the  latter 
being  entirely  devoid  of  even  a  spark  of  spirituality  —  helps 
towards  his  individual  progress. 

Inq.  But  surely,  if  the  Ego  is  held  responsible  for  the  transgressions  of  its 
personalities,  it  has  to  answer  also  for  the  loss,  or  rather  the  complete 
annihilation,  of  one  of  such. 

Theo.  Not  at  all,  unless  it  has  done  nothing  to  avert  this  dire 
fate.  But  if,  notwithstanding  all  its  efforts,  its  voice,  that 
of  our  conscience,  has  been  unable  to  penetrate  through  the 
wall  of  matter,  then  the  obtuseness  of  the  latter,  which  pro- 
ceeds from  the  imperfect  nature  of  the  material,  is  classed 
with  other  failures  of  nature.  The  Ego  is  sufficiently  pun- 
ished by  the  loss  of  Devachan,  and  especially  by  having  to 
incarnate  almost  immediately. 

Inq.  This  doctrine  of  the  possibility  of  losing  one's  soul  — or  personality, 
do  you  call  it?  —  militates  against  the  ideal  theories  of  both  Christians 
and  Spiritualists,  though  Swedenborg  adopts  it  to  a  certain  extent  in 


186  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

what  he  calls  "Spiritual  death."     Christians  and  Spiritualists  will  never 
accept  it. 

Th^o.  This  can  in  no  way  alter  a  fact  in  nature,  if  it  be  a  fact, 
or  prevent  such  a  thing  occasionally  taking  place.  The  uni- 
verse and  everything  in  it,  moral,  mental,  physical,  psychic  or 
Spiritual,  is  built  on  a  perfect  law  of  equilibrium  and  har- 
mony. As  said  before  in  Isis  Unveiled,  the  centripetal  force 
could  not  manifest  itself  without  the  centrifugal  in  the  har- 
monious revolutions  of  the  spheres,  and  all  forms  and  the 
progress  of  such  forms  are  products  of  this  dual  force  in 
Nature.  Now  the  Spirit,  or  Buddhi,  is  the  centrifugal,  and 
the  soul,  or  Manas,  the  centripetal  spiritual  energy;  and  to 
produce  one  result  they  have  to  be  in  perfect  union  and  har- 
mony. Break  or  damage  the  centripetal  motion  of  the  earth- 
ly soul  tending  toward  the  centre  which  attracts  it ;  arrest  its 
progress  by  clogging  it  with  a  heavier  weight  of  matter  than 
it  can  bear,  or  than  is  fit  for  the  Devachanic  state,  and  the 
harmony  of  the  whole  will  be  destroyed.  Personal  life,  or 
perhaps  rather  its  ideal  reflection,  can  only  be  continued  if 
sustained  by  the  twofold  force;  that  is,  by  the  close  union  of 
Buddhi  and  Manas  in  every  rebirth  or  personal  life.  The 
least  deviation  from  harmony  damages  it ;  and  when  it  is  de- 
stroyed beyond  redemption  the  two  forces  separate  at  the 
moment  of  death.  During  a  brief  interval  the  personal  form 
—  called  indifferently  kama  rfipa  and  niayaz'i  rupa  —  the 
spiritual  ef^orescence  of  which,  attaching  itself  to  the  Ego, 
follows  it  into  Devachan  and  gives  to  the  permanent  individ- 
uality its  personal  coloring  {pro  tern.,  so  to  speak),  is  carried 
ofif  to  remain  in  Kdmaloka  and  to  be  gradually  annihilated. 
For  it  is  after  the  death  of  the  utterly  depraved,  the  unspir- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  187 

itual  and  the  wicked  beyond  redemption  that  the  critical  and 
supreme  moment  arrives.  If  during  Hfe  the  ultimate  and 
desperate  effort  of  the  Inner  Self  (Manas)  to  unite  some- 
thing of  the  personality  with  itself  and  the  high  glimmering 
ray  of  the  divine  Buddhi  is  thwarted ;  if  this  ray  is  allowed  to 
be  more  and  more  shut  out  from  the  ever-thickening  crust 
of  the  physical  brain,  the  Spiritual  Ego  or  Manas,  once  freed 
from  the  body,  remains  severed  entirely  from  the  ethereal 
relic  of  the  personality;  and  the  latter,  or  Kama  Rupa,  fol- 
lowing its  earthly  attractions,  is  drawn  into  and  remains  in 
Hades,  which  we  call  Kamaloka.  These  are  *'  the  withered 
branches  "  mentioned  by  Jesus  as  being  cut  off  from  the  Vine. 
Annihilation,  however,  is  never  instantaneous,  and  may  re- 
quire centuries  sometimes  for  its  accomplishment.  But  there 
the  personality  remains  along  with  the  remnants  of  other 
more  fortunate  personal  Egos,  and  becomes  with  them  a 
sJiell  and  an  Elementary.  As  said  in  Isis  Unveiled,  it  is  these 
two  classes  of  "  spirits,"  the  shells  and  the  Blementaries, 
which  are  the  leading  "  Stars  "  on  the  great  spiritual  stage 
of  "  materializations."  And,  you  may  be  sure  of  it,  it  is  not 
they  who  incarnate;  and  therefore  it  is  that  so  few  of  these 
''dear  departed  ones"  know  anything  of  reincarnation,  and 
thereby  mislead  the  Spiritualists. 

Inq.  But  does  not  the  author  of  Isis  Unveiled  stand  accused  of  having 
preached  against  Reincarnation? 

TiiEO.  By  those  who  have  misunderstood  what  was  said,  yes. 
At  the  time  that  work  was  written  Reincarnation  was  not 
believed  in  by  any  Spiritualists,  either  English  or  American, 
and  what  is  there  said  of  Reincarnation  was  directed  against 


188  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

the  French  Spiritists,  whose  theory  is  as  unphilosophical 
and  absurd  as  the  Eastern  teaching  is  logical  and  self-evi- 
dent in  its  truth.  The  Reincarnationists  of  the  Allan  Kardec 
school  believe  in  an  arbitrary  and  immediate  reincarnation. 
With  them,  the  dead  father  can  incarnate  in  his  own  unborn 
daughter,  and  so  on.  They  have  neither  Devachan,  Karma, 
nor  any  philosophical  theory  that  would  warrant  or  prove 
the  necessity  of  consecutive  rebirths.  But  how  can  the  au- 
thor of  his  Unveiled  argue  against  Karmic  reincarnation, 
at  long  intervals  varying  between  one  thousand,  and  fifteen 
hundred  years,  when  it  is  the  fundamental  belief  of  both 
Buddhists  and  Hindus? 

Inq.  Then  you  reject  the  theories  of  both  the  Spiritists  and  the  Spirit- 
ualists in  their  entirety? 

ThEo.  Not  in  their  entirety,  but  only  with  regard  to  their  re- 
spective fundamental  beliefs.  Both  rely  on  what  their  ''spir- 
its" tell  them,  and  both  disagree  as  much  from  each  other 
as  we  Theosophists  disagree  from  both.  Truth  is  one;  and 
when  we  hear  the  French  spooks  preaching  Reincarnation, 
and  the  English  spooks  denying  and  denouncing  the  doctrine, 
we  say  that  either  the  French  or  the  English  ''spirits"  do  not 
know  what  they  are  talking  about.  We  believe,  with  the 
vSpiritualists  and  the  Spiritists,  in  the  existence  of  "  spirits," 
or  invisible  beings  endowed  with  more  or  less  intelligence. 
But  while  in  our  teachings  their  kinds  and  genera  are  legion, 
our  opponents  admit  of  no  other  than  human  disembodied 
"  spirits,"  which,  to  our  knowledge,  are  mostly  Kamalokic 
Shells. 

Inq.     You  seem  very  bitter  against  "  Spirits."     As  you  have  given  me  your 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  189 

views  and  your  reasons  for  disbelieving  in  the  materialization  of,  and 
direct  communication  in  seances  with,  the  disembodied  spirits,  or  the 
"spirits  of  the  dead,"  would  you  mind  enlightening  me  as  to  one  more 
fact?  Why  are  some  Theosophists  never  tired  of  saying  how  danger- 
ous is  intercourse  with  spirits,  and  mediumship?  Have  they  any  par- 
ticular reason  for  this? 

Theo.  We  must  suppose  so.  I  know  /  have.  Owing  to  my 
familiarity  for  over  half  a  century  with  these  invisible  but 
only  too  tangible  and  undeniable  "  influences,"  from  the  con- 
scious Elementals  and  semi-conscious  shells  down  to  the 
utterly  senseless  and  nondescript  spooks  of  all  kinds,  I  claim 
a  certain  right  to  my  views. 

Inq.  Can  you  give  an  instance  or  instances  to  show  why  these  practices 
should  be  regarded  as  dangerous  ? 

Theo.  This  would  require  more  time  than  I  can  give  you. 
Every  cause  must  be  judged  by  the  effects  it  produces.  Go 
over  the  history  of  Spiritualism  for  the  last  fifty  years,  ever 
since  its  reappearance  in  this  century  in  America,  and  judge 
for  yourself  whether  it  has  done  its  votaries  more  good  or 
harm.  Pray  understand  me.  I  do  not  speak  against  real 
spiritualism,  but  against  the  modern  movement  which  goes 
under  that  name,  and  the  so-called  philosophy  invented  to 
explain  its  phenomena. 

Inq.     Do  you  not  believe  in  their  phenomena  at  all? 

ThKo.  It  is  because  I  believe  in  them  with  too  good  reason,  and 
—  save  some  cases  of  deliberate  fraud  —  know  them  to  be 
as  true  as  that  5^ou  and  I  live,  that  all  my  being  revolts 
against  them.  Once  more  I  speak  only  of  physical,  not  mental 
or  even  psychic  phenomena.     Like  attracts  like.     There  are 


190  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

several  high-minded,  pure,  good  men  and  women,  known  to 
me  personally,  who  have  passed  years  of  their  lives  under 
the  direct  guidance  and  even  protection  of  high  "  Spirits," 
whether  disembodied  or  planetary.  But  these  Intelligences 
are  not  of  the  type  of  the  "John  Kings"  and  the  ''  Ernests  " 
who  figure  in  seance-rooms..  These  Intelligences  guide  and 
control  mortals  only  in  rare  and  exceptional  cases  to  which 
they  are  attracted  and  magnetically  drawn  by  the  Karmic 
past  of  the  individual.  It  is  not  enough  to  sit  ''  for  develop- 
ment "  in  order  to  attract  them.  That  only  opens  the  door 
to  a  swarm  of  spooks,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  to  which 
the  medium  becomes  a  slave  for  life.  It  is  against  such  pro- 
miscuous mediumship  and  intercourse  with  goblins  that  I 
raise  my  voice,  not  against  Spiritual  Mysticism.  The  latter 
is  ennobling  and  holy ;  the  former  is  of  just  the  same  nature 
as  the  phenomena  of  two  centuries  ago,  for  which  so  many 
witches  and  wizards  have  been  made  to  suffer.  Read  Glan- 
vil  and  other  authors  on  the  subject  of  witchcraft,  and  you 
will  find  recorded  there  the  parallels  of  most,  if  not  all,  of  the 
physical  phenomena  of  nineteenth-century  "  Spiritualism." 

Inq.     Do  you  mean  to  suggest  that  it  is  all  witchcraft  and  nothing  more? 

ThEO.  I  mean  that,  whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  all  this 
dealing  with  the  dead  is  necromancy,  and  a  most  dangerous 
practice.  For  ages  before  Moses  such  raising  of  the  dead 
was  regarded  by  all  the  intelligent  nations  as  sinful  and  cruel, 
inasmuch  as  it  disturbs  the  rest  of  the  souls  and  interferes 
with  their  evolutionary  development  into  higher  states.  The 
collective  wisdom  of  all  past  centuries  has  ever  been  loud 
in  denouncing  such  practices.     Finally,  I  say,  what  I  have 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  i91 

never  ceased  repeating  orally  and  in  print  for  fifteen  years: 
While  some  of  the  so-called  "spirits"  do  not  know  what  they 
are  talking  about,  repeating  merely,  like  poll-parrots,  what 
they  find  in  the  mediums'  and  other  people's  brains,  others 
are  most  dangerous  and  can  only  lead  one  to  evil.  These  are 
two  self-evident  facts.  Go  into  spiritualistic  circles  of  the 
Allan  Kardec  school,  and  you  find  "spirits"  asserting  Rein- 
carnation and  speaking  like  Roman  Catholics  born.  Turn 
to  the  "dear  departed  ones"  in  England  and  America,  and 
you  will  hear  them  denying  Reincarnation  through  thick  and 
thin,  denouncing  those  who  teach  it,  and  holding  to  Protest- 
ant views.  Your  best,  your  most  powerful  mediums  have 
all  sufifered  in  health  of  body  and  mind.  Think  of  the  sad 
end  of  Charles  Foster,  who  died  in  an  asylum,  a  raving  lu- 
natic; of  Slade,  an  epileptic;  of  Eglinton  —  the  best  medium 
now  in  England  —  subject  to  the  same  disease.  Look  back 
over  the  life  of  D.  D.  Home,  a  man  whose  mind  was  steeped 
in  gall  and  bitterness,  who  never  had  a  good  word  to  say  of 
anyone  whom  he  suspected  of  possessing  psychic  powers, 
and  who  slandered  every  other  medium  to  the  bitter  end. 
This  Calvin  of  Spiritualism  sufifered  for  years  from  a  ter- 
rible spinal  disease,  brought  on  by  his  intercourse  with  the 
"  spirits,"  and  died  a  perfect  wreck.  Think  again  of  the 
sad  fate  of  poor  Washington  Irving  Bishop.  I  knew  him  in 
New  York  when  he  was  fourteen,  and  he  was  undeniably 
a  medium.  It  is  true  that  the  poor  man  stole  a  march  on  his 
"spirits"  and  baptized  them  "  unconscious  muscular  action," 
to  the  great  gandhim  of  all  the  corporations  of  highly  learned 
and  scientific  fools,  and  to  the  replenishment  of  his  own 
pocket.    But  de  mortuis  nil  nisi  honuni ;  his  end  was  a  sad  one. 


192  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

He  had  strenuously  concealed  his  epileptic  fits  —  the  first 
and  strongest  symptom  of  genuine  mediumship  —  and  who 
knows  whether  he  was  dead  or  in  a  trance  when  the  post- 
mortem examination  was  performed?  His  relatives  insist 
that  he  was  alive,  if  we  are  to  believe  Renter's  telegrams. 
Finally,  behold  the  veteran  mediums,  the  founders  and  prime 
movers  of  modern  Spiritualism  —  the  Fox  sisters.  After 
more  than  forty  years  of  intercourse,  the  **angels"  have  led 
them  to  become  incurable  sots,  who  are  now  denouncing,  in 
public  lectures,  their  own  lifelong  work  and  philosophy  as  a 
fraud.  What  kind  of  "spirits"  must  they  be  who  prompted 
them,  I  ask  you  ? 

Inq.     But  is  your  inference  a  correct  one? 

The:o.  What  would  you  infer  if  the  best  pupils  of  a  particular 
school  of  singing  broke  down  from  overstrained  sore  throats  ? 
That  the  method  followed  was  a  bad  one?  So  I  think  the  in- 
ference is  equally  fair  with  regard  to  Spiritualism  when  we 
see  their  best  mediums  fall  a  prey  to  such  a  fate.  We  can 
only  say :  Let  those  who  are  interested  in  the  question  judge 
the  tree  of  Spiritualism  by  its  fruits,  and  ponder  over  the 
lesson.  We  Theosophists  have  always  regarded  the  Spirit- 
ualists as  brothers  having  the  same  mystic  tendency  as  our- 
selves; but  they  have  always  regarded  us  as  enemies.  We, 
being  in  possession  of  an  older  philosophy,  have  tried  to  help 
and  warn  them ;  but  they  have  repaid  us  by  reviling  and  tra- 
ducing us  and  our  motives  in  every  possible  way.  Never- 
theless the  best  English  Spiritualists  say  just  as  we  do,  wher- 
ever they  treat  of  their  belief  seriously.  Hear  "  M.  A. 
Oxon."  confessing  this  truth: 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  m 

Spiritualists  are  too  much  inclined  to  dwell  exclusively  on  the  inter- 
vention of  external  spirits  in  this  world  of  ours,  and  to  ignore  the 
powers  of  the  incarnate  Spirit.^^ 

Why  vilify  and  abuse  us,  then,  for  saying  precisely  the 
same?  Henceforward  we  will  have  nothing  more  to  do  with 
Spiritualism.     And  now  let  us  return  to  Reincarnation. 

57.    Second  Sight,  Introduction. 


194  THB    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 


XI 
ON  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  REINCARNATION 


PERIODICAL  REBIRTHS 


Inq.  You  mean,  then,  that  we  have  all  lived  on  earth  before  in  many  past 
incarnations,  and  shall  go  on  so  living? 

ThEo.  I  do.  The  life-cycle,  or  rather  the  cycle  of  conscious 
life,  begins  with  the  separation  of  the  mortal  animal-man 
into  sexes,  and  will  end  with  the  close  of  the  last  generation 
of  men  in  the  seventh  romid  and  seventh  race  of  mankind. 
Considering  we  are  only  in  the  fourth  round  and  fifth  race, 
its  duration  is  more  easily  imagined  than  expressed. 

Inq.     And  we  keep  on  incarnating  in  new  personalities  all  the  time? 

ThEo.  Most  assuredly  so;  because  this  life-cycle  or  period  of 
incarnation  may  be  best  compared  to  human  life.  As  each 
such  life  is  composed  of  days  of  activity  separated  by  nights 
of  sleep  or  of  inaction,  so  in  the  incarnation-cycle  an  active 
life  is  followed  by  a  Devachanic  rest. 

Inq.  And  it  is  this  succession  of  births  that  is  generally  defined  as  Rein- 
carnation ? 

ThEo.  Just  so.  It  is  only  through  these  births  that  the  perpet- 
ual progress  of  the  countless  millions  of  Egos  toward  final 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  195 

perfection,  and  a  final  rest  (as  long  as  was  the  period  of 
activity)  can  be  achieved, 

Inq.  And  what  is  it  that  regulates  the  duration  or  special  qualities  of  these 
incarnations  ? 

Theo.     Karma,  the  universal  law  of  retributive  justice. 

Inq.     Is  it  an  intelligent  law? 

Theo.  For  the  Materialist,  who  calls  the  law  of  periodicity 
which  regulates  the  marshaling  of  bodies,  and  all  the  other 
laws  in  Nature,  blind  forces  and  mechanical  laws,  no  doubt 
Karma  would  be  a  law  of  chance  and  no  more.  For  us  no 
adjective  or  qualification  could  describe  that  which  is  imper- 
sonal and  not  an  entity,  but  a  universal  operative  law.  If 
you  question  me  about  the  causative  intelligence  in  it,  I  must 
answer  you,  I  do  not  know.  But  if  you  ask  me  to  define  its 
effects  and  tell  you  what  these  are  in  our  belief,  I  may  say 
that  the  experience  of  thousands  of  ages  has  shown  us  that 
they  are  absolute  and  unerring  equity,  zvisdom  and  intelli- 
gence. For  Karma  in  its  effects  is  an  unfailing  redresser  of 
human  injustice,  and  of  all  the  failures  of  Nature;  a  stern 
adjuster  of  wrongs;  a  retributive  law  which  rewards  and 
punishes  with  equal  impartiality.  It  is,  in  the  strictest  sense, 
"  no  respecter  of  persons,"  though,  on  the  other  hand,  it  can 
neither  be  propitiated  nor  turned  aside  by  prayer.  This  is  a 
belief  common  to  Hindijs  and  Buddhists,  who  believe  in 
Karma. 

Inq.  In  this  Christian  dogmas  contradict  both,  and  I  doubt  whether  any 
Christian  will  accept  the  teaching. 

ThEo.  No;  and  Inman  gave  the  reason  for  it  many  years  ago. 
As  he  puts  it : 


196  THE    KEY    TO    THHOSOPHY 

The  Christians  will  accept  any  nonsense,  if  promulgated  by  the 
church  as  a  matter  of  faith ;  .  .  .  .  the  Buddhists  hold  that  nothing  which 
is  contradicted  by  sound  reason  can  be  a  true  doctrine  of  Buddha. 

The  Buddhists  do  not  believe  in  any  pardon  for  their  sins, 
except  after  an  adequate  and  just  punishment  for  each  evil 
deed  or  thought  in  a  future  incarnation,  and  a  proportionate 
compensation  to  the  parties  injured. 

Inq.     Where  is  it  so  stated? 

Theo.  In  most  of  their  sacred  works.  In  the  Wheel  of  the 
Law,  (p.  57)  you  may  find  the  following  Theosophical  tenet: 

Buddhists  believe  that  every  act,  word,  or  thought  has  its  conse- 
quence, which  will  appear  sooner  or  later  in  the  present  or  in  the  fu- 
ture state.  Evil  acts  will  produce  evil  consequences,  good  acts  will 
produce  good  consequences :  prosperity  in  this  world  or  birth  in  heaven 
[Devachan]  ....  in  the  future  state. 

Inq.     Christians  believe  the  same  thing,  don't  they? 

Theo.  Oh  no;  they  believe  in  the  pardon  and  the  remission  of 
all  sins.  They  are  promised  that  if  they  only  believe  in  the 
blood  of  Christ  —  an  innocent  victim !  —  in  the  blood  offered 
by  him  for  the  expiation  of  the  sins  of  the  whole  of  mankind, 
it  will  atone  for  every  mortal  sin.  And  we  believe  neither  in 
vicarious  atonement,  nor  in  the  possibility  of  the  remission 
of  the  smallest  sin  by  any  God  —  not  even  by  a  "  personal 
Absolute  "  or  "  Infinite,"  if  such  a  thing  could  have  any  ex- 
istence. What  we  believe  in  is  strict  and  impartial  justice. 
Our  idea  of  the  unknown  Universal  Deity,  represented  by 
Karma,  is  that  it  is  a  Power  which  cannot  fail,  and  can  there- 
fore have  neither  wrath  nor  mercy,  but  only  absolute  Equity, 
which  leaves  every  cause,  great  or  small,  to  work  out  its  in- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  197 

evitable  effects.  The  saying  of  Jesus,  "  With  what  measure 
ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again"  (Matt.  vii.  2), 
neither  by  expression  nor  implication  points  to  any  hope  of 
future  mercy  or  salvation  by  proxy.  This  is  why,  recogniz- 
ing as  we  do  in  our  philosophy  the  justice  of  this  statement, 
we  cannot  recommend  too  strongly  mercy,  charity  and  for- 
giveness of  mutual  offenses.  "  Resist  not  evil "  and  "'  render 
good  for  evil "  are  Buddhist  precepts,  and  were  first  preached 
in  view  of  the  implacability  of  karmic  law.  For  man  to  take 
the  law  into  his  own  hands  is  in  any  case  a  sacrilegious  pre- 
sumption. Human  law  may  use  restrictive,  not  punitive 
measures ;  but  a  man  who,  believing  in  Karma,  still  revenges 
himself,  still  refuses  to  forgive  every  injury,  whereby  he 
would  render  good  for  evil,  is  a  criminal,  and  only  hurts 
himself.  As  Karma  is  sure  to  punish  the  man  who  wronged 
him,  by  seeking  to  inflict  an  additional  punishment  on  his 
enemy,  he  who,  instead  of  leaving  that  punishment  to  the 
great  Law,  adds  to  it  his  own  mite,  only  begets  thereby  a 
cause  for  the  future  reward  of  his  own  enemy  and  a  future 
punishment  for  himself.  The  unfailing  Regulator  in  each 
incarnation  affects  the  quality  of  its  successor,  and  the  sum 
of  the  merit  or  demerit  in  preceding  incarnations  determines 
the  following  rebirth. 

L\Q.     Are  we,  then,  to  infer  a  man's  past  from  his  present? 

Theo.  Only  so  far  as  to  believe  that  his  present  life  is  what  it 
justly  should  be,  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  past  life.  Of 
course  —  seers  and  great  Adepts  excepted  —  we  cannot,  as 
average  mortals,  know  what  those  sins  were.  From  our 
paucity  of  data  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  determine  even  what 


198  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

an  old  man's  youth  must  have  been ;  neither  can  we,  for  Hke 
reasons,  draw  final  conclusions,  merely  from  what  we  see  in 
the  life  of  some  man,  as  to  what  his  past  life  may  have  been. 

WHAT  IS  KARMA? 

Inq.     But  what  is  Karma? 

Thko.  As  I  have  said,  we  consider  it  as  the  Ultimate  Lazv  of 
the  Universe,  the  source,  origin  and  fount  of  all  other  laws 
which  exist  throughout  Nature.  Karma  is  the  unerring  law 
which  adjusts  effect  to  cause,  on  the  physical,  mental  and  spir- 
itual planes  of  being.  As  no  cause  remains  without  its  due 
effect  from  greatest  to  least,  from  a  cosmic  disturbance  down 
to  the  movement  of  your  hand,  and  as  like  produces  like, 
Karma  is  that  unseen  and  unknown  law  which  adjusts  zviscly, 
intelligently  and  equitably  each  effect  to  its  cause,  tracing  the 
latter  back  to  its  producer.  Though  itself  unknowable,  its 
action  is  perceivable. 

Inq.  Then  it  is  the  "Absolute,"  the  "  Unknowable,"  again,  and  is  not  of 
much  value  as  an  explanation  of  the  problems  of  life. 

Theo.  On  the  contrary.  For  though  we  do  not  know  what 
Karma  is  per  se  and  in  its  essence,  we  do  know  hozv  it  works, 
and  we  can  define  and  describe  its  mode  of  action  with  ac- 
curacy. We  only  do  not  know  its  ultimate  Cause,  just  as 
modern  philosophy  universally  admits  that  the  ultimate  cause 
of  a  thing  is  "unknowable." 

Inq.  And  what  has  Theosophy  to  say  in  regard  to  the  solution  of  the  more 
practical  needs  of  humanity?  What  is  the  explanation  which  it  offers 
of  the  awful  suffering  and  dire  necessity  prevalent  among  the  so-called 
"lower  classes"  ? 


THB   KEY   TO    THBOSOPHY  199 

Theo.  To  be  pointed :  according  to  our  teaching,  all  these  great 
social  evils  —  the  distinction  of  classes  in  society,  and  of  the 
sexes  in  the  affairs  of  life,  the  unequal  distribution  of  capital 
and  of  labor  —  all  are  due  to  what  we  tersely  but  truly  de- 
nominate Karma. 

Inq.  But  surely  all  these  evils  which  seem  to  fall  upon  the  masses  some- 
what indiscriminately  are  not  actual  merited  and  individual  Karma? 

Theo.  No,  they  cannot  be  so  strictly  defined  in  their  effects  as 
to  show  that  each  individual  environment,  and  the  particular 
conditions  of  life  in  which  each  person  finds  himself,  are 
nothing  more  than  the  retributive  Karma  which  the  individ- 
ual has  generated  in  a  previous  life.  We  must  not  lose  sight 
of  the  fact  that  every  atom  is  subject  to  the  general  law  gov- 
erning the  whole  body  to  which  it  belongs,  and  here  we  come 
upon  the  wider  track  of  the  karmic  law.  Do  you  not  per- 
ceive that  the  aggregate  of  individual  Karma  becomes  that 
of  the  nation  to  which  those  individuals  belong  and,  further, 
that  the  sum  total  of  National  Karma  is  that  of  the  World? 
The  evils  that  you  speak  of  are  not  peculiar  to  the  individual 
or  even  to  the  Nation;  they  are  more  or  less  universal;  and 
it  is  upon  this  broad  line  of  Himian  interdependence  that 
the  law  of  Karma  finds  its  legitimate  and  equable  issue. 

Inq.  Do  I,  then,  understand  that  the  law  of  Karma  is  not  necessarily  an 
individual  law? 

Theo.  That  is  just  what  I  mean.  It  is  impossible  that  Karma 
could  readjust  the  balance  of  power  in  the  world's  life  and 
progress  unless  it  had  a  broad  and  general  line  of  action.  It 
is  held  as  a  truth  among  Theosophists  that  the  interdepend- 
ence of  Humanity  is  the  cause  of  what  is  called  Distributive 


200  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Karma,  and  it  is  this  law  which  afifords  the  solution  to  the 
great  question  of  collective  suffering  and  its  relief.  It  is  an 
occult  law,  moreover,  that  no  man  can  rise  superior  to  his 
individual  failings  without  lifting,  be  it  ever  so  little,  the 
whole  body  of  which  he  is  an  integral  part.  In  the  same  way 
no  one  can  sin,  nor  suffer  the  effects  of  sin,  alone.  In  reality 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  "  Separateness ;''  and  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  that  selfish  state  which  the  laws  of  life  permit  is  in 
the  intent  or  motive. 

Inq.  And  are  there  no  means  by  which  the  distributive  or  national  Karma 
might  be  concentrated  or  collected,  so  to  speak,  and  brought  to  its 
natural  and  legitimate  fulfilment  without  all  this  protracted  suffering? 

ThEo.  As  a  general  rule,  and  within  certain  limits  which  define 
the  age  to  which  we  belong,  the  law  of  Karma  can  not  be 
hastened  or  retarded  in  its  fulfilment.  But  of  this  I  am  cer- 
tain :  the  point  of  possibility  in  either  of  these  directions  has 
never  yet  been  touched. 

Inq.  There  seems  then  no  immediate  hope  of  any  relief  short  of  an  earth- 
quake, or  some  such  general  engulf ment. 

ThEo.  What  right  have  we  to  think  so  while  one  half  of  hu- 
manity is  in  a  position  to  effect  an  immediate  relief  of  the 
privations  which  are  suffered  by  their  fellows  ?  When  every 
individual  has  contributed  to  the  general  good  what  he  can  of 
money,  of  labor  and  of  ennobling  thought,  then,  and  only 
then,  will  the  balance  of  National  Karma  be  struck,  and  tmtil 
then  we  have  no  right,  nor  any  reasons,  for  saying  that  there 
is  more  life  on  the  earth  than  Nature  can  support.  It  is 
reserved  for  the  heroic  souls,  the  Saviors  of  our  Race  and 
Nation,  to  find  out  the  cause  of  this  unequal  pressure  of  re- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  201 

tributive  Karma,  and  by  a  supreme  effort  to  readjust  the  bal- 
ance of  power,  and  save  the  people  from  a  moral  engulfment 
a  thousand  times  more  disastrous  and  more  permanently  evil 
than  the  like  physical  catastrophe,  in  which  you  seem  to  see 
the  only  possible  outlet  for  this  accumulated  misery. 

Inq.     Well,  then,  tell  me  generally  how  you  describe  this  law  of  Karma. 

Theo.  We  describe  Karma  as  that  Law  of  readjustment  which 
ever  tends  to  restore  disturbed  equilibrium  in  the  physical, 
and  broken  harmony  in  the  moral  world.  We  say  that  Kar- 
ma does  not  act  in  this  or  that  particular  way  always,  but 
that  it  always  does  act  so  as  to  restore  Harmony  and  pre- 
serve the  balance  of  equilibrium,  in  virtue  of  which  the  Uni- 
verse exists. 

Inq.     Give  me  an  illustration. 

ThEo.  Later  on  I  will  give  you  a  full  illustration.  Think  now 
of  a  pond.  A  stone  falls  into  the  water  and  creates  disturb- 
ing waves.  These  waves  oscillate  backward  and  forward 
until  at  last,  owing  to  the  operation  of  what  physicists  call  the 
law  of  the  dissipation  of  energy,  they  are  brought  to  rest, 
and  the  water  returns  to  its  condition  of  calm  tranquillity. 
Similarly  all  action,  on  every  plane,  produces  disturbance  in 
the  balanced  harmony  of  the  Universe,  and  the  vibrations 
so  produced  will  continue  to  roll  backward  and  forward,  if 
the  area  is  limited,  until  equilibrium  is  restored.  But  since 
each  such  disturbance  starts  from  some  particular  point,  it 
is  clear  that  equilibrium  and  harmony  can  only  be  restored 
by  the  reconverging  to  that  same  point  of  all  the  forces  which 
were  set  in  motion  from  it.  And  here  you  have  proof  that 
the  consequences  of  a  man's  deeds,  thoughts,  etc.,  must  all 


202  THB    KHY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

react  upon  himself  with  the  same  force  with  which  they 
were  set  in  motion. 

Inq.  But  I  see  nothing  of  a  moral  character  about  this  law.  It  looks  to 
me  like  the  simple  physical  law  that  action  and  reaction  are  equal 
and  opposite. 

The;o.  I  am  not  surprised  to  hear  you  say  that.  Westerners 
have  got  so  much  into  the  ingrained  habit  of  considering 
right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil,  as  matters  of  an  arbitrary 
code  of  law  laid  down  either  by  men  or  imposed  upon  them 
by  a  Personal  God.  We  Theosophists,  however,  say  that 
"  Good  "  and  "  Harmony,"  and  "  Evil  "  and  "  Dis-harmony," 
are  synonymous.  Further,  we  maintain  that  all  pain  and 
suffering  are  results  of  want  of  Harmony,  and  that  the  one 
terrible  and  only  cause  of  the  disturbance  of  Harmony  is 
selfishness  in  some  form  or  other.  Hence  Karma  gives  back 
to  every  man  the  actual  consequences  of  his  own  actions, 
without  any  regard  to  their  moral  character;  but  since  he 
receives  his  due  for  all,  it  is  obvious  that  he  will  be  made  to 
atone  for  all  sufferings  which  he  has  caused,  just  as  he  will 
reap  in  joy  and  gladness  the  fruits  of  all  the  happiness  and 
harmony  he  had  helped  to  produce.  I  can  do  no  better  than 
quote  for  your  benefit  certain  passages  from  books  and  art- 
icles written  by  those  of  our  Theosophists  who  have  a  correct 
idea  of  Karma. 

Inq.     I  wish  you  would,  as  your  literature  seems  to  be  very  sparing  on  this 

subject. 
The;o.     Because  it  is  the  most  difficult  of  all  our  tenets.     Some 

short  time  ago  there  appeared  the  following  objection  from 

a  Christian  pen : 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  203 

Granting  that  the  teaching  in  regard  to  Theosophy  is  correct,  and 
that  "  man  must  be  his  own  saviour,  must  overcome  self  and  conquer 
the  evil  that  is  in  his  dual  nature,  to  obtain  the  emancipation  of  his 
soul "  —  what  is  man  to  do  after  he  has  been  awakened  and  converted 
to  a  certain  extent  from  evil  or  wickedness?  How  is  he  to  get  eman- 
cipation, or  pardon,  or  the  blotting  out  of  the  evil  or  wickedness  he 
has  already  done? 

To  this  a  Theosophical  writer  replies  very  pertinently  that 
no  one  can  hope  to  "  make  the  Theosophical  engine  run  on 
the  theological  track."     As  he  has  it: 

The  possibility  of  shirking  individual  responsibility  is  not  among  the 
concepts  of  Theosophy.  In  this  faith  there  is  no  such  thing  as  pardon- 
ing, or  "  blotting  out  of  evil  or  wickedness  already  done,"  otherwise 
than  by  the  adequate  punishment  therefor  of  the  wrong-doer  and  the 
restoration  of  the  harmony  in  the  universe  that  had  been  disturbed  by 
his  wrongful  act.  The  evil  has  been  his  own,  and  while  others  must 
suffer  its  consequences,  atonement  can  be  made  by  nobody  but  himself. 

The  condition  contemplated,  ...  in  which  a  man  shall  have  been 
"  awakened  and  converted  to  a  certain  extent  from  evil  or  wicked- 
ness," is  that  in  which  a  man  shall  have  realized  that  his  deeds  are 
evil  and  deserving  of  punishment.  In  that  realization  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal responsibility  is  inevitable,  and  just  in  proportion  to  the  extent 
of  his  awakening  or  "converting"  must  be  the  sense  of  that  awful 
responsibility.  While  it  is  strong  upon  him  is  the  time  when  he  is 
urged  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  atonement. 

He  is  told  that  he  must  also  repent;  but  nothing  is  easier  than  that. 
It  is  an  amiable  weakness  of  human  nature  that  we  are  quite  prone  to 
regret  the  evil  we  have  done  when  our  attention  is  called  and  we  have 
either  suffered  from  it  ourselves  or  enjoyed  its  fruits.  Possibly  close 
analysis  of  the  feeling  would  show  us  that  that  which  we  regret  is 
rather  the  necessity  that  seemed  to  require  the  evil  as  a  means  of  attain- 
ment of  our  selfish  ends  than  the  evil  itself. 


204  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

Attractive  as  this  prospect  of  casting  our  burden  of  sins  "  at  the 
foot  of  the  cross  "  may  be  to  the  ordinary  mind,  it  does  not  commend 
itself  to  the  Theosophic  student.  He  does  not  apprehend  why  the  sin- 
ner by  attaining  knowledge  of  his  evil  can  thereby  merit  any  pardon 
for,  or  the  blotting  out  of,  his  past  wickedness ;  or  why  repentance 
and  future  right  living  entitle  him  to  a  suspension  in  his  favor  of  the 
universal  law  of  relation  between  cause  and  effect.  The  results  of 
his  evil  deeds  continue  to  exist ;  the  suffering  caused  to  others  by  his 
wickedness  is  not  blotted  out.  The  Theosophical  student  takes  the 
result  of  wickedness  upon  the  innocent  into  his  problem.  He  con- 
siders not  only  the  guilty  person,  but  his  victims. 

Evil  is  an  infraction  of  the  laws  of  harmony  governing  the  universe, 
and  the  penalty  thereof  must  fall  upon  the  violator  of  that  law  himself. 
Christ  uttered  the  warning,  "  Sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  come 
unto  thee,"  and  St.  Paul  said,  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation ;" 
"  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap."  That,  by  the 
way  is  a  fine  metaphoric  rendering  of  the  sentence  of  the  Puranas,  far 
antedating  him  —  that  "  every  man  reaps  the  consequences  of  his  own 
acts." 

This  is  the  principle  of  the  law  of  Karma  which  is  taught  by  The- 
osophy.  Karma  has  been  called  "  the  law  of  ethical  causation."  "  The 
law  of  retribution,"  as  Madame  Blavatsky  translates  its  meaning,  is 
better.     It  is  the  power  which. 

Just,  though  mysterious,  leads  us  on  unerring, 
Through  ways  unmarked,  from  guilt  to  punishment. 

But  it  is  more.  It  rewards  merit  as  unerringly  and  amply  as  it  pun- 
ishes demerit.  It  is  the  outcome  of  every  act,  of  thought,  word,  and 
deed,  and  by  it  men  mold  themselves,  their  lives  and  happenings.  East- 
ern philosophy  rejects  the  idea  of  a  newly  created  soul  for  every  baby 
born.  It  believes  in  a  limited  number  of  monads,  evolving  and  grow- 
ing more  and  more  perfect  through  their  assimilation  of  many  suc- 
cessive personalities.  Those  personalities  are  the  product  of  Karma, 
and  it  is  by  Karma  and  Reincarnation  that  the  human  monad  in  time 
returns  to  its  source  —  absolute  deity. 


THE    KEY    To    TH  BO  SOPHY  205 

E.  D.  Walker,  in  his  Reincarnation,  offers  the  following 
explanation : 

Briefly,  the  doctrine  of  Karma  is  that  we  have  made  ourselves  what 
we  are  by  former  actions,  and  are  building  our  future  eternity  by  pres- 
ent actions.  There  is  no  destiny  but  what  we  ourselves  determine. 
There  is  no  salvation  or  condemnation  except  what  we  ourselves  bring 
about.  .  .  .  Because  it  offers  no  shelter  for  culpable  actions  and  neces- 
sitates a  sterling  manliness,  it  is  less  welcome  to  weak  natures  than 
the  easy  religious  tenets  of  vicarious  atonement,  intercession,  forgive- 
ness, and  death-bed  conversions.  ...  In  the  domain  of  eternal  justice 
the  offense  and  the  punishment  are  inseparably  connected  as  the  same 
event,  because  there  is  no  real  distinction  between  the  action  and  its 
outcome.  ...  It  is  Karma,  or  our  old  acts,  that  draws  us  back  into 
earthly  life.  The  spirit's  abode  changes  according  to  its  Karma,  and 
this  Karma  forbids  any  long  continuance  in  one  condition,  because  it 
is  always  changing.  So  long  as  action  is  governed  by  material  and 
selfish  motives,  just  so  long  must  the  effect  of  that  action  be  mani- 
fested in  physical  rebirths.  Only  the  perfectly  selfless  man  can  elude 
the  gravitation  of  material  life.  Few  have  attained  this,  but  it  is 
the  goal  of  mankind.       —-"—=' 

And  then  the  writer  quotes  from  The  Secret  Doctrine: 

Those  who  believe  in  Karma  have  to  believe  in  destiny,  which,  from 
birth  to  death,  every  man  is  weaving,  thread  by  thread,  around  him- 
self, as  a  spider  does  his  cobweb;  and  this  destiny  is  guided  either  by 
the  heavenly  voice  of  the  invisible  prototype  outside  of  us,  or  by  our 
more  intimate  astral  or  inner  man,  who  is  but  too  often  the  evil  genius 
of  the  embodied  entity  called  man.  Both  these  lead  on  the  outward 
man,  but  one  of  them  must  prevail;  and  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  invisible  affray  the  stern  and  implacable  law  of  compensation  steps 
in  and  takes  its  course,  faithfully  following  the  fluctuations.  When 
the  last  strand  is  woven,  and  man  is  seemingly  enwrapped  in  the  net- 
work of  his  own  doing,  then  he  finds  himself  completely  under  the 
empire  of  this  self-made  destiny.  .  .  . 


206  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

An  occultist  or  a  philosopher  will  not  speak  of  the  goodness  or 
cruelty  of  Providence ;  but,  identifying  it  with  Karma-Nemesis,  he  will 
teach  that,  nevertheless,  it  guards  the  good  and  watches  over  them  in 
this  as  in  future  lives ;  and  that  it  punishes  the  evil-doer  —  aye,  even 
to  his  seventh  rebirth  —  so  long,  in  short,  as  the  effect  of  his  having 
thrown  into  perturbation  even  the  smallest  atom  in  the  infinite  world 
of  harmony  has  not  been  finally  readjusted.  For  the  only  decree  of 
Karma  —  an  eternal  and  immutable  decree  —  is  absolute  harmony  in 
the  world  of  matter  as  it  is  in  the  world  of  spirit.  It  is  not,  therefore, 
Karma  that  rewards  or  punishes,  but  it  is  we  who  reward  or  punish 
ourselves  according  to  whether  we  work  with,  through,  and  along 
with  Nature,  abiding  by  the  laws  on  which  that  harmony  depends, 
or  —  break  them. 

Nor  would  the  ways  of  Karma  be  inscrutable  were  men  to  work  in 
union  and  harmony,  instead  of  disunion  and  strife.  For  our  ignor- 
ance of  those  ways  —  which  one  portion  of  mankind  calls  the  ways  of 
Providence,  dark  and  intricate ;  while  another  sees  in  them  the  action 
of  blind  fatalism ;  and  a  third,  simple  chance,  with  neither  gods  nor 
devils  to  guide  them  —  would  surely  disappear  if  we  would  but  at- 
tribute all  these  to  their  correct  cause.  .  .  . 

We  stand  bewildered  before  the  mystery  of  our  own  making  and 
the  riddles  of  life  that  we  will  not  solve,  and  then  accuse  the  great 
Sphinx  of  devouring  us.  But  verily  there  is  not  an  accident  of  our 
lives,  not  a  misshapen  day  or  a  misfortune,  that  could  not  be  traced 
back  to  our  own  doings  in  this  or  in  another  life.  .  .  . 

The  law  of  Karma  is  inextricably  interwoven  with  that  of  Reincarn- 
ation. ...  It  is  only  this  doctrine  that  can  explain  to  us  the  mysterious 
problem  of  good  and  evil,  and  reconcile  man  to  the  terrible  and  appar- 
ent injustice  of  life.  Nothing  but  such  certainty  can  quiet  our  re- 
volted sense  of  justice.  For,  when  one  unacquainted  with  the  noble 
doctrine  looks  around  him  and  observes  the  inequalities  of  birth  and 
fortune,  of  intellect  and  capacities ;  when  one  sees  honor  paid  to  fools 
and  profligates  on  whom  fortune  has  heaped  her  favors  by  mere  privi- 
lege of  birth,  and  their  nearest  neighbor,  with  all  his  intellect  and  noble 
virtues  —  far  more  deserving  in  every  way  —  perishing  for  want  and 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  207 

for  lack  of  sympathy ;  when  one  sees  all  this  and  has  to  turn  away, 
helpless  to  relieve  the  undeserved  suffering,  one's  ears  ringing  and  heart 
aching  with  the  cries  of  pain  around  him,  that  blessed  knowledge  of 
Karma  alone  prevents  him  from  cursing  life  and  men  as  well  as  their 
supposed  creator.  .  .  . 

This  law,  whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  predestines  nothing 
and  no  one.  It  exists  from  and  in  eternity  truly,  for  it  is  eternity 
itself ;  and  as  such,  since  no  act  can  be  coequal  with  eternity,  it  cannot 
be  said  to  act,  for  it  is  action  itself.  It  is  not  the  wave  which  drowns 
the  man,  but  the  personal  action  of  the  wretch  who  goes  deliberately 
and  places  himself  under  the  impersonal  action  of  the  laws  that  gov- 
ern the  ocean's  motion.  Karma  creates  nothing,  nor  does  it  design. 
It  is  man  who  plants  and  creates  causes,  and  Karmic  law  adjusts  the 
effects,  which  adjustment  is  not  an  act,  but  universal  harmony,  tending 
ever  to  resume  its  original  position,  like  a  bough,  which,  bent  down 
too  forcibly,  rebounds  with  corresponding  vigor.  If  it  happen  to 
dislocate  the  arm  that  tried  to  bend  it  out  of  its  natural  position,  shall 
we  say  it  is  the  bough  which  broke  our  arm,  or  that  our  own  folly  has 
brought  us  to  grief?  Karma  has  never  sought  to  destroy  intellectual 
and  individual  liberty,  like  the  God  invented  by  the  monotheists.  It 
has  not  involved  its  decrees  in  darkness  purposely  to  perplex  man,  nor 
shall  it  punish  him  who  dares  to  scrutinize  its  mysteries.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  who  through  study  and  meditation  unveils  its  intricate  paths, 
and  throws  light  on  those  dark  ways,  in  the  windings  of  which  so 
many  men  perish,  owing  to  their  ignorance  of  the  labyrinth  of  life,  is 
working  for  the  good  of  his  fellow  men.  Karma  is  an  absolute  and 
eternal  law  in  the  world  of  manifestation;  and  as  there  can  be  only 
one  Absolute,  as  one  eternal,  ever-present  Cause,  believers  in  Karma 
cannot  be  regarded  as  atheists  or  materialists,  still  less  as  fatalists ; 
for  Karma  is  one  with  the  Unknowable,  of  which  it  is  an  aspect,  in 
its  effects  in  the  phenomenal  world. 

[In  Vol.  1  of  The  Path  is  an  article  on  "  Karma,"  unsigned, 
from  which  we  give  the  following  extracts : 

Karma,  broadly  speaking,  may  be  said  to  be  the  continuance  of 


208  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

the  nature  of  the  act,  and  each  act  contains  within  itself  the  past  and 
future.  Every  defect  which  can  be  realized  from  an  act  must  be 
implicit  in  the  act  itself,  or  it  could  never  come  into  existence. 
Effect  is  but  the  nature  of  the  act  and  cannot  exist  distinct  from  its 
cause.  Karma  only  produces  the  manifestation  of  that  which  already 
exists ;  being  action  it  has  its  operation  in  time,  and  Karma  may  there- 
fore be  said  to  be  the  same  action  from  another  point  of  time.  It 
must,  moreover,  be  evident  that  not  only  is  there  a  relation  between 
the  cause  and  the  effect,  but  there  must  be  also  a  relation  between 
the  cause  and  the  individual  who  experiences  the  effect.  If  it  were 
otherwise  any  man  would  reap  the  effect  of  the  actions  of  any  other 
man.  We  may  sometimes  appear  to  reap  the  effects  of  the  action 
of  others,  but  this  is  only  apparent.  In  point  of  fact  it  is  our  own 
action. 

"...     None  else  compels, 
None  other  holds  you  that  ye  live  and  die." 

It  is  therefore  necessary  in  order  to  understand  the  nature  of  Karma 
and  its  relation  to  the  individual  to  consider  action  in  all  its  aspects. 
Every  act  proceeds  from  the  mind.  Beyond  the  mind  there  is  no 
action,  therefore  no  Karma.  The  basis  of  every  act  is  desire. 
The  plane  of  desire  or  egotism  is  itself  action  and  the  matrix  of  every 
act.  This  plane  may  be  considered  as  non-manifest,  yet  having  a 
dual  manifestation  in  what  we  call  cause  and  effect,  that  is  the  act 
and  its  consequences.  In  reality,  both  the  act  and  its  consequences 
are  the  effect,  the  cause  being  on  the  plane  of  desire.  Desire  is  there- 
fore the  basis  of  action  in  its  first  manifestation  on  the  physical  plane 
and  desire  determines  the  continuation  of  the  act  in  its  karmic  rela- 
tion to  the  individual.  For  a  man  to  be  free  from  the  effects  of  the 
Karma  of  any  act  he  must  have  passed  to  a  state  no  longer  yielding 
a  basis  in  which  that  act  can  inhere.  The  ripples  in  the  water  caused 
by  the  action  of  the  stone  will  extend  to  the  furthest  limit  of  its  ex- 
panse, but  no  further:  they  are  bounded  by  the  shore.  Their  course 
is  ended  when  there  is  no  longer  a  basis  or  suitable  medium  in  which 
they  can  inhere ;  they  expend  their  force  and  are  not.  Karma  is  there- 
fore, as  dependent  upon  the  present  personality  for  its  fulfilment,  as 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  209 

it  was  upon  the  former  for  the  first  initial  act.     An  illustration  may 
be  given  which  will  help  to  explain  this. 

A  seed,  say  for  instance  mustard,  will  produce  a  mustard  tree  and 
nothing  else,  but  in  order  that  it  should  be  produced,  it  is  necessary 
that  the  co-operation  of  soil  and  culture  should  be  equally  present. 
Without  the  seed,  however  much  the  ground  may  be  tilled  and  watered, 
it  will  not  bring  forth  the  plant,  but  the  seed  is  equally  inoperative 
without  the  joint  action  of  the  soil  and  culture.] 

The  first  mentioned  writer  proceeds : 

The  believers  in  a  religion  based  upon  such  doctrine  are  willing  it 
should  be  compared  with  one  in  which  man's  destiny  for  eternity  is 
determined  by  the  accidents  of  a  single,  brief,  earthly  existence,  during 
which  he  is  cheered  by  the  promise  that  "as  the  tree  falls,  so  shall  it 
lie" ;  in  which  his  brightest  hope,  when  he  wakes  up  to  a  knowledge 
of  his  wickedness,  is  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  atonement;  and  in 
which  even  that  is  handicapped,  according  to  the  Presbyterian  Con- 
fession of  Faith : 

"  By  the  decree  of  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  some 
men  and  angels  are  predestinated  unto  everlasting  life  and  others 
fore-ordained  to  everlasting  death. 

"  These  angels  and  men  thus  predestinated  and  fore-ordained  are 
particularly  and  unchangeably  designed;  and  their  number  is  so  cer- 
tain and  definite  that  it  cannot  be  either  increased  or  diminished.  .  .  . 
As  God  hath  appointed  the  elect  unto  glory,  .  .  .  neither  are  any  other 
redeemed  by  Christ  effectually  called,  justified,  adopted,  sanctified 
and  saved  but  the  elect  only. 

"  The  rest  of  mankind  God  was  pleased,  according  to  the  unsearch- 
able counsel  of  his  own  will,  whereby  he  extendeth  or  withholdeth 
mercy  as  he  pleaseth,  for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign  power  over  his 
creatures,  to  pass  by  and  to  ordain  them  to  dishonor  and  wrath  for 
their  sin,  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice." 

This  is  what  the  able  defender  says.     Nor  can  we  do  any 


210  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

better  than  wind  up  the  subject  as  he  does,  by  a  quotation 
from  a  magnificent  poem.     As  he  says : 

The  exquisite  beauty  of  Edwin  Arnold's  exposition  of  Karma  in 
The  Light  of  Asia  tempts  to  its  reproduction  here,  but  it  is  too  long 
for  quotation  in  full.     Here  is  a  portion  of  it: 

Karma  —  all  that  total  of  a  soul 

Which  is  the  things  it  did,  the  thoughts  it  had, 
The  "  self  "  it  wove  with  woof  of  viewless  time 

Crossed  on  the  warp  invisible  of  acts. 

******  if 

Before  beginning  and  without  an  end, 

As  space  eternal  and  as  surety  sure. 
Is  fixed  a  Power  divine  which  moves  to  good. 

Only  its  laws  endure. 

It  will  not  be  contemned  of  any  one; 

Who  thwarts  it  loses,  and  who  serves  it  gains; 
The  hidden  good  it  pays  with  peace  and  bliss, 

The  hidden  ill  with  pains. 

It  seeth  everywhere  and  marketh  all ; 

Do    right  —  it    recompenseth  !     Do   one    wrong  — 
The  equal  retribution  must  be  made, 

Though  Dharma  tarry  long. 

It  knows  not  wrath  nor  pardon;  utter-true. 

Its  measures  mete,  its  faultless  balance  weighs; 
Times  are  as  naught  —  to-morrow  it  will  judge  — 

Or  after  many  days. 
♦  ****♦♦ 

Such  is  the  law  which  moves  to  righteousness. 

Which  none  at  last  can  turn  aside  or  stay; 
The  heart  of  it  is  love,  the  end  of  it 

Is  peace  and  consummation  sweet.    Obey. 

And  now  I  advise  you  to  compare  our  Theosophic  views 
upon  Karma,  the  law  of  Retribution,  and  say  whether  they 
are  not  both  more  philosophical  and  just  than  this  cruel  and 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  211 

idiotic  dogma  which  makes  of  "  God  "  a  senseless  fiend  — 
the  tenet,  namely,  that  the  "elect  only"  will  be  saved,  and  the 
rest  doomed  to  eternal  perdition ! 

Inq.  Yes,  I  see  what  you  mean  generally ;  but  I  wish  you  could  give  some 
concrete  example  of  the  action  of  Karma. 

Theo.  That  I  cannot  do.  We  can  only  feel  sure,  as  I  said 
before,  that  our  present  lives  and  circumstances  are  the  di- 
rect results  of  our  own  deeds  and  thoughts  in  lives  that  are 
past.  But  we,  who  are  not  Seers  or  Initiates,  cannot  know 
anything  about  the  details  of  the  working  of  the  law  of 
Karma. 

Inq.  Can  any  one,  even  an  Adept  or  Seer,  follow  out  this  Karmic  process 
of  readjustment  in  detail? 

Theo.  Certainly ;  "  Those  who  knozv  "  can  do  so  by  the  exercise 
of  powers  which  are  latent  even  in  all  men. 

WHO  ARE  THOSE  WHO  KNOW  ? 

Inq.     Does  this  hold  equally  of  ourselves  as  of  others? 

Theo.  Equally.  As  just  said,  the  same  limited  vision  exists  for 
all,  save  for  those  who  have  reached,  in  the  present  incarn- 
ation, the  acme  of  spiritual  vision  and  clairvoyance.  We 
can  only  perceive  that,  if  things  ought  to  have  been  different 
with  us,  they  would  have  been  different;  that  we  are  what 
we  have  made  ourselves,  and  have  only  what  we  have  earned 
for  ourselves. 

Inq.     I  am  afraid  such  a  conception  would  only  embitter  us. 

Theo.     I  believe  it  is  precisely  the  reverse.    It  is  disbelief  in  the 


212  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV 

just  law  of  retribution  that  is  more  likely  to  awaken  every 
combative  feeling  in  man.  A  child,  as  much  as  a  man,  re- 
sents a  punishment,  or  even  a  reproof  he  believes  to  be  un- 
merited, far  more  than  he  does  a  severer  punishment,  if  he 
feels  that  it  is  merited.  Belief  in  Karma  is  the  highest 
motive  for  reconcilement  to  one's  lot  in  this  life,  and  the  very 
strongest  incentive  toward  effort  to  better  the  succeeding 
rebirth.  Both  of  these,  indeed,  would  be  destroyed  if  we 
supposed  that  our  lot  was  the  result  of  anything  but  strict 
Law,  or  that  destiny  was  in  any  other  hands  than  our  own. 

Inq.  You  have  just  asserted  that  this  system  of  Reincarnation  under 
Karmic  law  commended  itself  to  reason,  justice  and  the  moral  sense. 
But,  if  so,  is  it  not  at  some  sacrifice  of  the  gentler  qualities  of  sym- 
pathy and  pity,  and  thus  a  hardening  of  the  finer  instincts  of  human 
nature  ? 

Theo.  Only  apparently,  not  really.  No  man  can  receive  more 
or  less  than  his  deserts  without  a  corresponding  injustice  or 
partiality  to  others ;  and  a  law  which  could  be  averted  through 
compassion  would  bring  about  more  misery  than  it  saved, 
more  irritation  and  curses  than  thanks.  Remember,  also, 
that  we  do  not  administer  the  law,  if  we  do  create  causes  for 
its  effects;  it  administers  itself;  and  again,  that  the  most 
copious  provision  for  the  manifestation  of  just  compassion 
and  mercy  is  shown  in  the  state  of  Devachan. 

Inq.  You  speak  of  Adepts  as  being  an  exception  to  the  rule  of  our  general 
ignorance.  Do  they  really  know  more  than  we  do  of  Reincarnation 
and  after-states  ? 

ThEo.  They  do  indeed.  By  the  training  of  faculties  we  all  pos- 
sess, but  which  they  alone  have  developed  to  perfection,  they 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  213 

have  entered  in  spirit  these  various  planes  and  states  we  have 
been  discussing.  For  long  ages  one  generation  of  Adepts 
after  another  has  studied  the  mysteries  of  being,  of  life, 
death  and  rebirth,  and  all  have  taught  in  their  turn  some  of 
the  facts  so  learned. 

Inq.     And  is  the  production  of  Adepts  the  aim  of  Theosophy? 

Theo.  Theosophy  considers  humanity  as  an  emanation  from 
divinity  on  its  return  path  thereto.  At  an  advanced  point 
upon  the  path  Adeptship  is  reached  by  those  who  have  de- 
voted several  incarnations  to  its  achievement.  For,  remem- 
ber well,  no  man  has  ever  reached  Adeptship  in  the  Secret 
Sciences  in  one  life;  but  many  incarnations  are  necessary  for 
it  after  the  formation  of  a  conscious  purpose  and  the  begin- 
ing  of  the  needful  training.  Many  may  be  the  men  and 
women  in  the  very  midst  of  our  Society  who  have  begun  this 
uphill  work  toward  illumination  several  incarnations  ago, 
and  who  yet,  owing  to  the  personal  illusions  of  the  present 
life,  are  either  ignorant  of  the  fact,  or  on  the  road  to  losing 
every  chance,  in  this  existence,  of  progressing  any  farther. 
They  feel  an  irresistible  attraction  toward  Occultism  and  the 
Higher  Life,  and  yet  are  too  personal  and  self-opinionated, 
too  much  in  love  with  the  deceptive  allurements  of  mundane 
life  and  the  world's  ephemeral  pleasures,  to  give  them  up, 
and  so  lose  their  chance  in  the  present  birth.  But,  for 
ordinary  men,  for  the  practical  duties  of  daily  life,  such  a 
far-off  result  is  inappropriate  as  an  aim  and  quite  ineffective 
as  a  motive. 

Inq.     What,  then,  may  be  their  object  or  distinct  purpose  in  joining  the 
Theosophical  Society? 


214  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Th^o.  Many  are  interested  in  our  doctrines,  and  feel  instinct- 
ively that  they  are  truer  than  those  of  any  dogmatic  religion. 
Others  have  formed  a  fixed  resolve  to  attain  the  highest 
ideal  of  man's  duty. 


THE  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  FAITH  AND  KNOWLEDGE;  OR 
BLIND  AND  REASONED  FAITH 

Inq.  You  say  that  they  accept  and  believe  in  the  doctrines  of  Theosophy. 
But  as  they  do  not  belong  to  those  Adepts  you  have  just  mentioned, 
then  they  must  accept  your  teachings  on  blind  faith.  In  what  does 
this  differ  from  that  of  conventional  religions? 

ThEo.  As  it  differs  on  almost  all  the  other  points,  so  it  differs 
on  this  one.  What  you  call  "  faith,"  and  that  which  is  blind 
faith,  in  reality,  with  regard  to  the  dogmas  of  the  Christian 
religions,  becomes  with  us  "  knozvlcdgc,"  the  logical  sequence 
of  things  we  knozv,  about  facts  in  Nature.  Your  Doctrines 
are  based  upon  interpretation,  therefore  upon  the  second- 
hand testimony  of  Seers ;  ours  upon  the  unvarying  and  invar- 
iable testimony  of  Seers.  The  ordinary  Christian  theology, 
for  instance,  holds  that  man  is  a  creature  of  God,  of  three 
component  parts  —  body,  soul  and  spirit  —  all  essential  to 
his  integrity  and  all,  either  in  the  gross  form  of  physical 
earthly  existence  or  in  the  etherealized  form  of  post-resur- 
rection experience,  needed  so  to  constitute  him  forever,  each 
man  having  thus  a  permanent  existence  separate  from  other 
men  and  from  the  Divine.  Theosophy,  on  the  other  hand, 
holds  that  man,  being  an  emanation  from  the  Unknown,  yet 
ever-present  and  infinite  Divine  Essence,  his  body  and  every- 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  2iS 

thing  else  is  impermanent,  hence  an  illusion;  Spirit  alone  in 
him  being  the  one  enduring  substance,  and  even  that  losing 
its  separated  individuality  at  the  moment  of  its  complete  re- 
union with  the  Universal  Spirit. 

Inq.     If  we  lose  even  our  individuality,  then  it  becomes  simply  annihilation. 

Theo.  I  say  it  does  not,  since  I  speak  of  separate,  not  of  uni- 
versal individuality.  This  individuality  becomes  as  a  part 
transformed  into  the  whole;  the  dezvdrop  is  not  evaporated, 
but  becomes  the  sea.  Is  physical  man  annihilated  when 
from  a  foetus  he  becomes  an  old  man?  What  kind  of  Sa- 
tanic pride  must  be  ours  if  we  place  our  infinitesimally  small 
consciousness  and  individuality  higher  than  the  universal 
and  infinite  consciousness ! 

Inq.     It  follows,  then,  that  there  is,  de  facto,  no  man,  but  all  is  Spirit? 

Theo.  You  are  mistaken.  It  follows  that  the  union  of  Spirit 
with  matter  is  but  temporary ;  or,  to  put  it  more  clearly,  since 
Spirit  and  matter  are  one,  being  the  two  opposite  poles  of  the 
universal  manifested  substance,  Spirit  loses  its  right  to  the 
name  so  long  as  the  smallest  particle  and  atom  of  its  mani- 
festing substance  still  clings  to  any  form,  the  result  of  differ- 
entiation.    To  believe  otherwise  is  blind  faith. 

Inq.  Thus  it  is  on  knowledge,  not  on  faith,  that  you  assert  that  the  per- 
manent principle,  the  Spirit,  simply  makes  a  transit  through  matter? 

Theo.  I  would  put  it  otherwise  and  say:  We  assert  that  the 
appearance  of  the  permanent  and  one  principle  —  Spirit  — • 
as  matter  is  transient,  and  therefore  no  better  than  an  il- 
lusion. 


216  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Inq.     Very  well;  and  this  given  out  on  knowledge,  not  faith? 

Theo.  Just  SO.  But  as  I  see  very  well  what  you  are  driving  at, 
I  may  just  as  well  tell  you  that  we  hold  faith  such  as  you  ad- 
vocate to  be  a  mental  disease,  and  real  faith  —  i.  e.,  the  pistis 
of  the  Greeks  —  as  '^  belief  based  on  knowledge,"  whether 
supplied  by  the  evidence  of  physical  or  spiritual  senses. 

Inq.    What  do  you  mean? 

Thko.  If  it  is  the  difference  between  the  two  that  you  want  to 
know,  I  mean  that  between  faith  on  authority  and  faith  on 
one's  spiritual  intuition  there  is  a  very  great  difference. 

Inq.     What  is  it? 

Theo.  One  is  human  credulity  and  superstition,  the  other  hu- 
man belief  and  intuition.  As  Professor  Alexander  Wilder 
says  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Bleusinian  Mysteries: 

It  is  ignorance  which  leads  to  profanation.  Men  ridicule  what 
they  do  not  properly  understand.  .  .  .  The  undercurrent  of  this 
world  is  set  towards  one  goal ;  and  inside  of  human  credulity  ...  is  a 
power  almost  infinite,  a  holy  faith  capable  of  apprehending  the  suprem- 
est  truths  of  all  existence. 

Those  who  limit  that  "credulity"  to  human  authoritative 
dogmas  alone  will  never  fathom  that  power,  nor  even  per- 
ceive it  in  their  natures.  It  is  stuck  fast  to  the  external 
plane,  and  is  unable  to  bring  forth  into  play  the  essence  that 
rules  it;  for  to  do  this  they  have  to  claim  their  right  of 
private  judgment,  and  this  they  never  dare  to  do. 

Inq.  And  is  it  that  "intuition"  which  forces  you  to  reject  God  as  a  per- 
sonal Father,  Ruler  and  Governor  of  the  Universe? 

Theo.     Precisely.     We  believe  in  an  ever-unknowable  Principle ; 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  217 

for  only  blind  aberration  can  make  one  maintain  that  the 
Universe,  thinking  man  and  all  the  marvels  contained  even  in 
the  world  of  matter,  could  have  grown  without  some  intelli- 
gent powers  to  bring  about  the  extraordinarily  wise  arrange- 
ment of  all  its  parts.  Nature  may  err,  and  often  does,  in  its 
details  and  the  external  manifestations  of  its  materials,  never 
in  its  inner  causes  and  results.  Ancient  pagans  held  far 
more  philosophical  views  on  this  question  than  modern  phil- 
osophers, whether  agnostics,  materialists  or  Christians;  and 
no  pagan  writer  has  ever  yet  advanced  the  proposition  that 
cruelty  and  mercy  are  not  finite  feelings,  and  can  therefore 
be  made  the  attributes  of  an  infinite  God.  Their  gods,  there- 
fore, were  all  finite.  The  Siamese  author  of  the  Wheel  of 
the  Laiv  expresses  the  same  idea  about  your  personal  God 
as  ourselves;  he  says  (p.  25) : 

A  Buddhist  might  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  God  sublime  above 
all  human  qualities  and  attributes  —  a  perfect  God,  above  love  and 
hatred  and  jealousy,  calmly  resting  in  a  quietude  that  nothing  could 
disturb;  and  of  such  a  God  he  would  speak  no  disparagement,  not 
from  a  desire  to  please  him  or  fear  to  offend  him,  but  from  natural 
veneration.  But  he  cannot  understand  a  God  with  the  attributes  and 
qualities  of  men;  a  God  who  loves  and  hates  and  shows  anger;  a 
Deity  who,  whether  described  as  by  Christian  missionaries  or  by 
Mahometans  or  Brahmins^s  or  Jews,  falls  below  his  standard  of  even 
an  ordinary  good  man. 

Inq.  Faith  for  faith,  is  not  the  faith  of  the  Christian  who  believes,  in  his 
human  helplessness  and  humility,  that  there  is  a  merciful  Father  in 
Heaven  who  will  protect  him  from  temptation,  help  him  in  life,  and 


58.     Sectarian  Brahmans  are  here  meant.     The  Parabrahman  of  the  Vedantins  is  the 
Deity  we  accept  and  believe  in. 


218  .     THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

forgive  him  his  transgressions,  better  than  the  cold  and  proud,  ahnost 
fataUstic,  faith  of  the  Buddhists,  Vedantins  and  Theosophists  ? 

Theo.  Persist  in  calling  our  belief  "  faith  "  if  you  will.  But 
once  we  are  again  on  this  ever-recurring  question,  I  ask  in 
my  turn :  Faith  for  faith,  is  not  the  one  based  on  strict  logic 
and  reason  better  than  the  one  which  is  based  simply  on 
human  authority  or  —  hero-worship?  Our  "faith"  has  all 
the  logical  force  of  the  arithmetical  truism  that  two  and  two 
will  produce  four.  Your  faith  is  like  the  logic  of  some  emo- 
tional women,  of  whom  Tourgenyeff  said  that  for  them  two 
and  two  were  generally  five,  and  a  tallow  candle  into  the 
bargain.  Yours  is  a  faith,  moreover,  which  clashes  not  only 
with  every  conceivable  view  of  justice  and  logic,  but  which, 
if  analyzed,  leads  man  to  his  moral  perdition,  checks  the 
progress  of  mankind,  and  positively  making  of  might  right, 
transforms  every  second  man  into  a  Cain  to  his  brother  Abel. 


HAS  GOD  THE  RIGHT  TO  FORGIVE  ? 

Inq.     To  what  do  you  allude? 

Theo.  To  the  Doctrine  of  ''Atonement."  I  allude  to  that  dan- 
gerous dogma  in  which  you  believe,  and  which  teaches  us 
that  no  matter  how  enormous  our  crimes  against  the  laws  of 
God  and  of  man,  we  have  but  to  believe  in  the  self-sacrifice 
of  Jesus  for  the  salvation  of  mankind,  and  his  blood  will 
wash  out  every  stain.  It  is  now  twenty  years  that  I  have 
preached  against  it,  and  I  may  now  draw  your  attention  to 
a  paragraph  from  Isis  Unveiled,  written  in  1875.  This  is 
what  Christianity  teaches,  and  what  we  combat : 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  219 

God's  mercy  is  boundless  and  unfathomable.  It  is  impossible  to 
conceive  of  a  human  sin  so  damnable  that  the  price  paid  in  advance  for 
the  redemption  of  the  sinner  would  not  wipe  it  out  if  a  thousandfold 
worse.  And,  furthermore,  it  is  never  too  late  to  repent.  Though  the 
offender  wait  until  the  last  minute  of  the  last  hour  of  the  last  day  of 
his  mortal  life  before  his  blanched  lips  utter  the  confession  of  faith, 
he  may  go  to  Paradise ;  the  dying  thief  did  so,  and  so  may  all  others 
as  vile.  These  are  the  assumptions  of  the  church  and  of  the  clergy ; 
assumptions  banged  at  the  heads  of  your  countrymen  by  England's 
favorite  preachers,  right  in  the  "  light  of  the  nineteenth  century"  — 
this  most  paradoxical  age  of  all! 

Now,  to  what  does  it  lead? 

Inq.     Does  it  not  make  the  Christian  happier  than  the  Buddhist  or  Brahman? 

ThKo.  No ;  not  the  educated  man,  at  any  rate,  since  the  majority 
of  these  have  long  since  virtually  lost  all  belief  in  this  cruel 
dogma.  But  it  leads  those  who  still  believe  in  it  more  easily 
to  the  threshold  of  every  conceivable  crime  than  any  other  I 
know  of.  Let  me  quote  to  you  from  Isis  Unveiled  once  more 
(ii.,  542,  543): 

If  we  step  outside  the  little  circle  of  creed  and  consider  the  uni- 
verse as  a  whole  balanced  by  the  exquisite  adjustment  of  parts,  how 
all  sound  logic,  how  the  faintest  glimmering  sense  of  justice,  revolts 
against  this  vicarious  atonement!  If  the  criminal  sinned  only  against 
himself,  and  wronged  no  one  but  himself;  if  by  sincere  repentance  he 
could  cause  the  obliteration  of  past  events,  not  only  from  the  memory 
of  man,  but  also  from  that  imperishable  record  which  no  deity  —  not 
even  the  Supremest  of  the  Supreme  —  can  cause  to  disappear,  then  this 
dogma  might  not  be  incomprehensible.  But  to  maintain  that  one  may 
wrong  his  fellow-man,  kill,  disturb  the  equilibrium  of  society  and  the 
natural  order  of  things,  and  then  —  through  cowardice,  hope  or  com- 
pulsion matters  not  —  be  forgiven  by  believing  that  the  spilling  of  one 
blood  washes  out  the  other  blood  spilled  —  this  is  preposterous !     Can 


220  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

the  results  of  a  crime  be  obliterated  even  though  the  crime  itself  should 
be  pardoned?  The  effects  of  a  cause  are  never  limited  to  the  bound- 
aries of  the  cause,  nor  can  the  results  of  crime  be  confined  to  the 
offender  and  his  victim.  Every  good  as  well  as  evil  action  has  its 
effects,  as  palpably  as  the  stone  flung  into  calm  water.  The  simile  is 
trite,  but  it  is  the  best  ever  conceived,  so  let  us  use  it.  The  eddying 
circles  are  greater  and  swifter  as  the  disturbing  object  is  greater  or 
smaller ;  but  the  smallest  pebble  —  nay,  the  tiniest  speck  —  makes  its 
ripples.  And  this  disturbance  is  not  alone  visible  and  on  the  surface. 
Below,  unseen,  in  every  direction  —  outward  and  downward  —  drop 
pushes  drop  until  the  sides  and  bottom  are  touched  by  the  force. 
More,  the  air  above  the  water  is  agitated,  and  this  disturbance  passes, 
as  the  physicists  tell  us,  from  stratum  to  stratum  out  into  space  for 
ever  and  ever ;  an  impulse  has  been  given  to  matter,  and  that  is 
never  lost,  can  never  be  recalled !  .  .  . 

So  with  crime  and  so  with  its  opposite.  The  action  may  be  instan- 
taneous, the  effects  are  eternal.  When,  after  the  stone  is  once  flung 
into  the  pond,  we  can  recall  it  to  the  hand,  roll  back  the  ripples,  oblit- 
erate the  force  expended,  restore  the  etheric  waves  to  their  previous 
state  of  non-being,  and  wipe  out  every  trace  of  the  act  of  throwing  the 
missile,  so  that  Time's  record  shall  not  show  that  it  ever  happened, 
then,  then  we  may  patiently  hear  Christians  argue  for  the  efficacy  of 
this  atonement 

and — cease  to  believe  in  Karmic  Law.  As  it  now  stands, 
we  call  upon  the  whole  world  to  decide  which  of  our  two  doc- 
trines is  the  most  appreciative  of  deific  justice,  and  which  is 
more  reasonable,  even  on  simple  human  evidence  and  logic. 

Inq.     Yet  millions  believe  in  the  Christian  dogma  and  are  happy. 

ThEo.  Pure  sentimentalism  overpowering  their  thinking  facul- 
ties, which  no  true  philanthropist  or  Altruist  will  ever  accept. 
It  is  not  even  a  dream  of  selfishness,  but  a  nightmare  of  the 
human  intellect.     Look  where  it  leads  to,  and  tell  me  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV  221 

name  of  that  pagan  country  where  crimes  are  more  easily 
committed  or  more  numerous  than  in  Christian  lands.  Look 
at  the  long  and  ghastly  annual  records  of  crimes  committed 
in  European  countries;  and  behold  Protestant  and  Biblical 
America.  There  conversions  effected  in  prisons  are  more 
numerous  than  those  made  by  public  revivals  and  preaching. 

See  how  the  ledger-balance  of  Christian  justice  ( !)  stands.  Red- 
handed  murderers,  urged  on  by  the  demons  of  lust,  revenge,  cupidity, 
fanaticism,  or  mere  brutal  thirst  for  blood,  who  kill  their  victims,  in 
most  cases,  without  giving  them  time  to  repent  or  call  on  Jesus. 
These,  perhaps,  died  sinful  and,  of  course  —  consistently  with  theo- 
logical logic  —  met  the  reward  of  their  greater  or  lesser  offenses.  But 
the  murderer,  overtaken  by  human  justice,  is  imprisoned,  wept  over  by 
sentimentalists,  prayed  with  and  at,  pronounces  the  charmed  words  of 
conversion,  and  goes  to  the  scaffold  a  redeemed  child  of  Jesus!  Ex- 
cept for  the  murder  he  would  not  have  been  prayed  with,  redeemed, 
pardoned.  Clearly  this  man  did  well  to  murder,  for  thus  he  gained 
eternal  happiness !  And  how  about  the  victim,  and  his  or  her  family, 
relatives,  dependents,  social  relations;  has  justice  no  recompense  for 
them?  Must  they  suffer  in  this  world  and  the  next,  while  he  who 
wronged  them  sits  beside  the  "  holy  thief  "  of  Calvary  and  is  forever 
blessed?    On  this  question  the  clergy  keep  a  prudent  silence.^^ 

And  now  you  know  why  Theosophists  —  whose  funda- 
mental belief  and  hope  is  justice  for  all,  in  heaven  as  on 
earth,  and  in  Karma  —  reject  this  dogma. 

Inq.  The  ultimate  destiny  of  man,  then,  is  not  a  Heaven  presided  over  by 
God,  but  the  gradual  transformation  of  matter  into  its  primordial 
element,  spirit? 

ThEo.     It  is  to  that  final  goal  to  which  all  tends  in  nature. 

59.     Isis   Unveiled,  ibid. 


222  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

Inq.  Do  not  some  of  you  regard  this  association  or  "  fall  of  spirit  into 
matter  "  as  evil,  and  rebirth  as  a  sorrow  ? 

Theo.  Some  do,  and  therefore  strive  to  shorten  their  period  of 
probation  on  earth.  It  is  not,  however,  an  unmixed  evil, 
since  it  insures  the  experience  upon  which  we  mount  to  know- 
ledge and  wisdom.  I  mean  that  experience  which  teaches 
that  the  needs  of  our  spiritual  nature  can  never  be  met  by- 
other  than  spiritual  happiness.  As  long  as  we  are  in  the 
body  we  are  subjected  to  pain,  suffering  and  all  the  disap- 
pointing incidents  occurring  during  life.  Therefore,  and  to 
palliate  this,  we  finally  acquire  knowledge  which  alone  can 
afTord  us  relief  and  hope  of  a  better  future. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  m 


XII 
WHAT  IS  PRACTICAL  THEOSOPHY  ? 


DVTY 

Inq.  Why,  then,  the  need  for  re-births,  since  all  alike  fail  to  secure  a 
permanent  peace? 

ThDo.  Because  the  final  goal  cannot  be  reached  in  any  way  but 
through  life-experiences,  and  because  the  bulk  of  these  con- 
sists in  pain  and  suffering.  It  is  only  through  the  latter 
that  we  can  learn.  Joys  and  pleasures  teach  us  nothing; 
they  are  evanescent,  and  can  only  in  the  long  run  bring 
satiety.  Moreover,  our  constant  failure  to  find  any  per- 
manent satisfaction  in  life  which  would  meet  the  wants  of 
our  higher  nature  shows  us  plainly  that  those  wants  can  be 
met  only  on  their  own  plane  —  to  wit,  the  spiritual. 

Inq.  Is  the  natural  result  of  this  a  desire  to  quit  life  by  one  means  or 
another  ? 

Theo.  If  you  mean  by  such  desire  "suicide,"  then  I  say,  most 
decidedly  not.  Such  a  result  can  never  be  a  "natural"  one, 
but  is  ever  due  to  a  morbid  brain-disease,  or  to  most  decided 
and  strong  materialistic  views.  It  is  the  worst  of  crimes, 
and  dire  in  its  results.  But  if  by  desire  you  mean  simply 
aspiration  to  reach  spiritual  existence,  and  not  a  wish  to  quit 


224  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

the  earth,  then  I  would  call  it  a  very  natural  desire  indeed. 
Otherwise  voluntary  death  would  be  an  abandonment  of  our 
present  post  and  of  the  duties  incumbent  on  us,  as  well  as  an 
attempt  to  shirk  karmic  responsibilities,  and  thus  involve  the 
creation  of  new  Karma. 

Inq.  But  if  actions  on  the  material  plane  are  unsatisfying,  why  should 
duties,  which  are  such  actions,  be  imperative? 

Theo.  First  of  all,  because  our  philosophy  teaches  us  that  the 
object  of  doing  our  duties  to  all  men  first  and  to  ourselves 
last  is  not  the  attainment  of  personal  happiness,  but  the  hap- 
piness of  others;  the  fulfilment  of  right  for  the  sake  of  right, 
not  for  what  it  may  bring  us.  Happiness,  or  rather  con- 
tentment, may  indeed  follow  the  performance  of  duty,  but  is 
not  and  must  not  be  the  motive  for  it. 

Inq.  What  do  you  understand  precisely  by  "duty"  in  Theosophy?  It  can 
not  be  the  Christian  duties  preached  by  Jesus  and  his  apostles,  since 
you  recognize  neither. 

ThEo.  You  are  once  more  mistaken.  What  you  call  "  Christ- 
ian duties  "  were  inculcated  by  every  great  moral  and  relig- 
ious Reformer  ages  before  the  Christian  era.  All  that  was 
great,  generous,  heroic,  was  in  days  of  old,  not  only  talked 
about  and  preached  from  pulpits  as  in  our  own  time,  but 
acted  upon,  sometimes  by  whole  nations.  The  history  of  the 
Buddhist  reform  is  full  of  the  most  noble  and  most  heroically 
unselfish  acts.  "  Be  ye  all  of  one  mind,  having  compassion 
one  of  another;  love  as  brethren,  be  pitiful,  be  courteous: 
not  rendering  evil  for  evil,  or  railing  for  railing:  but  con- 
trariwise blessing,"  was  practically  carried  out  by  the  fol- 
lowers of  Buddha  several  centuries  before  Peter.  The  Ethics 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  225 

of  Christianity  are  grand,  no  doubt;  but,  as  undoubtedly, 
they  are  not  new,  and  have  originated  as  '*  Pagan  "  duties. 

Inq.  And  how  would  you  define  these  duties,  or  "duty"  in  general,  as 
you  understand  the  term? 

ThEo.  Duty  is  that  which  is  due  to  Humanity  —  to  our  fellow- 
men,  neighbors,  family  —  and  especially  that  which  we  owe 
to  all  those  who  are  poorer  and  more  helpless  than  we  are 
ourselves.  This  is  a  debt  which,  if  left  unpaid  during  life, 
leaves  us  spiritually  insolvent  and  moral  bankrupts  in  our 
next  incarnation.     Theosophy  is  the  quintessence  of  duty. 

Inq.     So  is  Christianity  when  rightly  understood  and  carried  out. 

ThKo.  No  doubt  it  is ;  but  then,  were  it  not  a  lip-religion  in  prac- 
tice, Theosophy  would  have  little  to  do  amid  Christians.  Un- 
fortunately it  is  but  such  lip-ethics.  Those  who  practise 
their  duty  toward  all,  and  for  duty's  own  sake,  are  few ;  and 
fewer  still  are  those  who  perform  that  duty,  remaining  con- 
tent with  the  satisfaction  of  their  own  secret  consciousness. 
It  is 

The  public  voice 
Of  praise,  that  honors  virtue  and  rewards  it, 

which  is  ever  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  the  "  world-re- 
nowned "  philanthropists.  Modern  ethics  are  beautiful  to 
read  about  and  hear  discussed;  but  what  are  words  unless 
converted  into  actions?  Finally,  if  you  ask  me  how  we 
understand  Theosophical  duty  practically  and  in  view  of 
Karma,  I  may  answer  you  that  our  duty  is  to  drink  to  the 
last  drop,  without  a  murmur,  whatever  contents  the  cup  of 
life  may  have  in  store  for  us,  to  pluck  the  roses  of  life  only 
for  the  fragrance  they  may  shed  on  others,  and  to  be  our- 


226  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

selves  content  but  with  the  thorns,  if  that  fragrance  cannot 
be  enjoyed  without  depriving  some  one  else  of  it. 

Inq.     All  this  is  very  vague.     What  do  you  do  more  than  Christians  do? 

Theo.  It  is  not  what  we  members  of  the  Theosophical  Society 
do  —  though  some  of  us  try  our  best  —  but  how  much  farther 
Theosophy  leads  to  good  than  modern  Christianity  does.  I 
say  action  —  enforced  action,  instead  of  mere  intention  and 
talk.  A  man  may  be  what  he  likes  —  the  most  worldly,  self- 
ish and  hardhearted  of  men,  even  a  deep-dyed  rascal  —  and 
it  will  not  prevent  him  from  calling  himself  a  Christian,  or 
others  from  so  regarding  him.  But  no  Theosophist  has  the 
right  to  this  name  unless  he  is  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
correctness  of  Carlyle's  truism,  ''  The  end  of  man  is  an 
action  and  not  a  thought,  though  it  were  the  noblest,"  and 
unless  he  sets  and  models  his  daily  life  upon  this  truth.  The 
profession  of  a  truth  is  not  yet  the  enactment  of  it ;  and  the 
more  beautiful  and  grand  it  sounds,  the  more  loudly  virtue 
or  duty  is  talked  about  instead  of  being  acted  upon,  the  more 
forcibly  it  will  always  remind  one  of  the  Dead  Sea  fruit. 
Cant  is  the  most  loathsome  of  all  vices,  and  cant  is  the  most 
prominent  feature  of  the  greatest  Protestant  country  of  this 
century  —  England. 

Inq.     What  do  you  consider  as  due  to  humanity  at  large? 

ThEo.  Full  recognition  of  equal  rights  and  privileges  for  all, 
without  distinction  of  race,  color,  social  position  or  birth. 

Inq.     When  would  you  consider  such  due  not  given? 

ThEo.  When  there  is  the  slightest  invasion  of  another's  right, 
be  that  other  a  man  or  a  nation;  when  there  is  any  failure 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  227 

to  show  him  the  same  justice,  kindness,  consideration  or 
mercy  which  we  desire  for  ourselves.  The  whole  present 
system  of  politics  is  built  on  the  oblivion  of  such  rights  and 
the  most  fierce  assertion  of  national  selfishness.  The  French 
say,  "  Like  master,  like  man ;"  they  ought  to  add,  "  Like  na- 
tional policy,  like  citizen." 

Inq.     Do  you  take  any  part  in  politics? 

ThKo.  As  a  Society  we  carefully  avoid  them,  for  the  reasons 
given  below.  To  seek  to  achieve  political  reforms  before  we 
have  effected  a  reform  in  human  nature,  is  like  putting  nezv 
wine  into  old  bottles.  Make  men  feel  and  recognize  in  their 
innermost  hearts  what  is  their  real,  true  duty  to  all  men,  and 
every  old  abuse  of  power,  every  iniquitous  law  in  the  national 
policy  based  on  human,  social  or  political  selfishness,  will 
disappear  of  itself.  Foolish  is  the  gardener  who  tries  to 
weed  his  flower-bed  of  poisonous  plants  by  cutting  them  oft* 
from  the  surface  of  the  soil,  instead  of  tearing  them  out  by 
the  roots.  No  lasting  political  reform  can  be  ever  achieved 
with  the  same  selfish  men  at  the  head  of  affairs  as  of  old. 


THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  THEOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY  TO  POLITICAL 

REFORMS 

Inq.     The  Theosophical  Society  is  not,  then,  a  political  organization? 

ThEo.  Certainly  not.  It  is  international  in  the  highest  sense, 
in  that  its  members  comprise  men  and  women  of  all  races, 
creeds  and  forms  of  thought,  who  work  together  for  one  ob- 
ject —  the  improvement  of  humanity ;  but  as  a  society  it  takes 
absolutely  no  part  in  any  national  or  party  politics. 


228  THE    KBY    TO    THEOSOPHV 

Inq.     Why  is  this? 

Theo.  For  the  very  reasons  I  have  mentioned.  Moreover,  pol- 
itical action  must  necessarily  vary  with  the  circumstances  of 
the  time  and  with  the  idiosyncrasies  of  individuals.  While, 
from  the  very  nature  of  their  position  as  Theosophists,  the 
members  of  the  Theosophical  Society  are  agreed  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  Theosophy,  or  they  would  not  belong  to  the  Society 
at  all,  it  does  not  thereby  follow  that  they  agree  on  every 
other  subject.  As  a  society  they  can  only  act  together  in 
matters  which  are  common  to  all  —  that  is,  in  Theosophy  it- 
self;  as  individuals,  each  is  left  perfectly  free  to  follow  out 
his  or  her  particular  line  of  political  thought  and  action,  so 
long  as  this  does  not  conflict  with  Theosophical  principles  or 
hurt  the  Theosophical  Society. 

Inq.  But  surely  the  Theosophical  Society  does  not  stand  altogether  aloof 
from  the  social  questions  which  are  now  so  fast  coming  to  the  front? 

Theo.  The  very  principles  of  the  Theosophical  Society  are  a 
proof  that  it  does  not  —  or  rather,  that  most  of  its  members 
do  not  —  so  stand  aloof.  If  humanity  can  only  be  developed 
mentally  and  spiritually  by  the  enforcement,  first  of  all,  of 
the  soundest  and  most  scientific  physiological  laws,  it  is  the 
bounden  duty  of  all  who  strive  for  this  development  to  do 
their  utmost  to  see  that  those  laws  shall  be  generally  carried 
out.  All  Theosophists  are  only  too  sadly  aware  that,  in 
Occidental  countries  especially,  the  social  condition  of  large 
masses  of  the  people  renders  it  impossible  for  either  their 
bodies  or  their  spirits  to  be  properly  trained,  so  that  the 
development  of  both  is  thereby  arrested.  As  this  training 
and  development  is  one  of  the  express  objects  of  Theosophy, 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  229 

the  Theosophical  Society  is  in  thorough  sympathy  and  har- 
mony with  all  true  efforts  in  this  direction. 

Inq,  But  what  do  you  mean  by  "true  efforts"?  Each  social  reformer  has 
his  own  panacea,  and  each  believes  his  to  be  the  one  and  only  thing 
which  can  improve  and  save  humanity. 

TiiEO.  Perfectly  true;  and  this  is  the  real  reason  why  so  little 
satisfactory  social  work  is  accomplished.  In  most  of  these 
panaceas  there  is  no  really  guiding  principle,  and  there  is 
certainly  no  one  principle  which  connects  them  all.  Valu- 
able time  and  energy  are  thus  wasted;  for  men,  instead  of 
co-operating,  strive  one  against  the  other,  often  it  is  to  be 
feared,  for  the  sake  of  fame  and  reward  rather  than  for 
the  great  cause  which  they  profess  to  have  at  heart,  and 
which  should  be  supreme  in  their  lives. 

Inq.  How,  then,  should  Theosophical  principles  be  applied  so  that  social 
co-operation  may  be  promoted  and  true  efforts  for  social  ameHoration 
be  carried  on? 

Theo.  Let  me  briefly  remind  you  what  these  principles  are: 
Universal  Unity  and  Causation ;  Human  Solidarity ;  the  Law 
of  Karma ;  Reincarnation.  These  are  the  four  links  of  the 
golden  chain  which  should  bind  humanity  into  one  family, 
one  Universal  Brotherhood. 

Inq.     How? 

Theo.  In  the  present  state  of  society,  especially  in  so-called  civ- 
ilized countries,  we  are  continually  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  fact  that  large  numbers  of  people  are  suffering  from 
misery,  poverty  and  disease.  Their  physical  condition  is 
wretched,  and  their  mental  and  spiritual  faculties  are  often 
almost  dormant.     On  the  other  hand,  many  persons  at  the 


230  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

opposite  end  of  the  social  scale  are  leading  lives  of  careless 
indifference,  material  luxury,  and  selfish  indulgence.  Neither 
of  these  forms  of  existence  is  mere  chance.  Both  are  the 
effects  of  the  conditions  which  surround  those  who  are  sub- 
ject to  them,  and  the  neglect  of  social  duty  on  the  one  side 
is  most  closely  connected  with  the  stunted  and  arrested  devel- 
opment on  the  other.  In  sociology,  as  in  all  branches  of  true 
science,  the  law  of  universal  causation  holds  good.  But  this 
causation  necessarily  implies,  as  its  logical  outcome,  that  hu- 
man solidarity  on  which  Theosophy  so  strongly  insists.  If 
the  action  of  one  reacts  on  the  lives  of  all  —  and  this  is  the 
true  scientific  idea  —  then  it  is  only  by  all  men  becoming  bro- 
thers and  all  women  sisters,  and  by  all  practising  in  their 
daily  lives  true  brotherhood  and  true  sisterhood,  that  the  real 
human  solidarity  which  lies  at  the  root  of  the  elevation  of 
the  race  can  ever  be  attained.  It  is  this  action  and  interaction, 
this  true  brotherhood  and  sisterhood,  in  which  each  shall  live 
for  all  and  all  for  each,  which  is  one  of  the  fundamental 
Theosophical  principles  that  every  Theosophist  should  be 
bound  not  only  to  teach,  but  to  carry  out  in  his  or  her  in- 
dividual life. 

Inq.  ah  this  is  very  well  as  a  general  principle,  but  how  would  you  apply 
it  in  a  concrete  way? 

Thho.  Look  for  a  moment  at  what  you  would  call  the  concrete 
facts  of  human  society.  Contrast  the  lives  not  only  of  the 
masses  of  the  people,  but  of  many  of  those  who  are  called 
the  middle  and  upper  classes,  with  what  they  might  be  under 
healthier  and  nobler  conditions,  where  justice,  kindness,  and 
love  were  paramount,  instead  of  the  selfishness,  indifference. 


rnn  key  to  thbosophy  231 

and  brutality  which  now  too  often  seem  to  reign  supreme. 
All  good  and  evil  things  in  humanity  have  their  roots  in  hu- 
man character,  and  this  character  is,  and  has  been,  condi- 
tioned by  the  endless  chain  of  cause  and  effect.  But  this  con- 
ditioning applies  to  the  future  as  well  as  to  the  present  and 
the  past.  Selfishness,  indifference,  and  brutality  can  never 
be  the  normal  state  of  the  race ;  to  believe  so  would  be  to  des- 
pair of  humanity,  and  that  no  Theosophist  can  do.  Progress 
can  be  attained,  and  only  attained  by,  the  development  of  the 
nobler  qualities.  Now,  true  evolution  teaches  us  that  by  al- 
tering the  surroundings  of  the  organism  we  can  alter  and 
improve  the  organism;  and  in  the  strictest  sense  this  is  true 
with  regard  to  man.  Every  Theosophist,  therefore,  is  bound 
to  do  his  utmost  to  help  on,  by  all  the  means  in  his  power, 
every  wise  and  well-considered  social  effort  which  has  for 
its  object  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  poor.  Such 
efforts  should  be  made  with  a  view  to  their  ultimate  social 
emancipation,  or  the  development  of  the  sense  of  duty  in 
those  who  now  so  often  neglect  it  in  nearly  every  relation 
of  life. 

Inq.  Agreed.  But  who  is  to  decide  whether  social  efforts  are  wise  or 
unwise? 

Theo.  No  one  person  and  no  society  can  lay  down  a  hard-and- 
fast  rule  in  this  respect.  Much  must  necessarily  be  left  to 
the  individual  judgment.  One  general  test  may,  however, 
be  given :  Will  the  proposed  action  tend  to  promote  that  true 
brotherhood  which  it  is  the  aim  of  Theosophy  to  bring  about  ? 
No  real  Theosophist  will  have  much  difficulty  in  applying 
such  a  test;  once  he  is  satisfied  of  this,  his  duty  will  lie  in  the 


232  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

direction  of  forming  public  opinion.  And  this  can  be  attained 
only  by  inculcating  those  higher  and  nobler  conceptions  of 
public  and  private  duties  which  lie  at  the  root  of  all  spiritual 
and  material  improvement.  In  every  conceivable  case  he 
himself  must  be  a  center  of  spiritual  action,  and  from  him 
and  his  own  daily  individual  life  must  radiate  those  higher 
spiritual  forces  which  alone  can  regenerate  his  fellow-men. 

Inq.  But  why  should  he  do  this?  Are  not  he  and  all,  as  you  teach,  con- 
ditioned by  their  Karma,  and  must  not  Karma  necessarily  work  itself 
out  on  certain  Hnes? 

ThEO.  It  is  this  very  law  of  Karma  which  gives  strength  to  all 
that  I  have  said.  The  individual  cannot  separate  himself 
from  the  race,  nor  the  race  from  the  individual.  The  law 
of  Karma  applies  equally  to  all,  though  all  are  not  equally 
developed.  In  helping  on  the  development  of  others  the  The- 
osophist  believes  that  he  is  not  only  helping  them  to  fulfil 
their  Karma,  but  that  he  is  also,  in  the  strictest  sense,  ful- 
filling his  own.  It  is  the  development  of  humanity,  of  which 
both  he  and  they  are  integral  parts,  that  he  has  always  in 
view,  and  he  knows  that  any  failure  on  his  part  to  respond 
to  the  highest  within  him  retards  not  only  himself,  but  all, 
in  their  progressive  march.  By  his  actions  he  can  make  it 
either  more  difficult  or  more  easy  for  humanity  to  attain  the 
next  higher  plane  of  being. 

Inq.  How  does  this  bear  on  the  fourth  of  the  principles  you  mentioned, 
viz.,  Reincarnation? 

ThEo.  The  connection  is  most  intimate.  If  our  present  lives 
depend  upon  the  development  of  certain  principles  which  are 
a  growth  from  the  germs  left  by  a  previous  existence,  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  233 

law  holds  good  as  regards  the  future.  Once  grasp  the  idea 
that  universal  causation  is  not  merely  present,  but  past,  pres- 
ent, and  future,  and  every  action  on  our  present  plane  falls 
naturally  and  easily  into  its  true  place,  and  is  seen  in  its  true 
relation  to  ourselves  and  to  others.  Every  mean  and  selfish 
action  sends  us  backward  and  not  forward,  while  every  noble 
thought  and  every  unselfish  deed  are  stepping-stones  to  the 
higher  and  more  glorious  planes  of  being.  If  this  life  were 
all,  then  in  many  respects  it  would  indeed  be  poor  and  mean ; 
but  regarded  as  a  preparation  for  the  next  sphere  of  exist- 
ence, it  may  be  used  as  the  golden  gate  through  which  we 
may  pass  —  not  selfishly  and  alone  but  in  company  with  our 
fellows  —  to  the  palaces  which  lie  beyond. 


ON   SELF-SACRIFICE 

Inq.  Is  equal  justice  to  all  and  love  to  every  creature  the  highest  standard 
of  Theosophy? 

Theo.     No;  there  is  an  even  far  higher  one. 

Inq.     What  can  it  be? 

The;o.  The  giving  to  others  rnore  than  to  one's  self  —  self-sacri- 
fice. Such  was  the  standard  and  abounding  measure  which 
marked  so  pre-eminently  the  greatest  Teachers  and  Masters 
of  humanity  —  such  as  Gautama  Buddha  in  History,  and 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  in  the  Gospels.  This  trait  alone  was 
enough  to  secure  them  the  perpetual  reverence  and  gratitude 
of  the  generations  of  men  that  came  after  them.  We  say, 
however,  that  self-sacrifice  has  to  be  performed  with  discrim- 
ination; and  such  a  self-abandonment,  if  made  without  jus- 


234  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

tice,  or  blindly,  regardless  of  subsequent  results,  may  often 
prove  not  only  to  have  been  made  in  vain,  but  even  to  be 
harmful.  One  of  the  fundamental  rules  of  Theosophy  is 
justice  to  one's  self  —  viewed  as  a  unit  of  collective  hu- 
manity, not  as  a  personal  self  —  justice,  not  more,  but  not 
less,  than  to  others;  unless,  indeed,  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  one 
self  we  can  benefit  the  many. 

Inq.     Could  you  make  your  idea  clearer  by  giving  an  instance? 

Thdo.  There  are  many  instances  to  illustrate  it  in  history.  Self- 
sacrifice  for  the  practical  good  of  many  or  several  people, 
Theosophy  holds  far  higher  than  self-abnegation  for  a  sect- 
arian idea,  such  as  that  of  "  saving  the  heathen  from  dam- 
nation," for  instance.  In  our  opinion.  Father  Damien,  the 
young  man  of  thirty  who  offered  his  whole  life  in  sacrifice 
for  the  benefit  and  alleviation  of  the  sufferings  of  the  lepers 
at  Molokai;  who,  after  living  for  eighteen  years  alone  with 
them,  finally  caught  the  loathsome  disease  and  died,  has  not 
died  in  vain.  He  has  given  relief  and  relative  happiness 
to  thousands  of  miserable  wretches.  He  has  brought  to  them 
consolation,  mental  and  physical.  He  threw  a  streak  of  light 
into  the  black  and  dreary  night  of  an  existence  the  hopeless- 
ness of  which  is  unparalleled  in  the  records  of  human  suffer- 
ing. He  was  a  true  Theosophist,  and  his  memory  will  live 
for  ever  in  our  annals.  In  our  sight  this  poor  Belgian  priest 
stands  immeasurably  higher  than,  for  instance,  all  those  sin- 
cere but  vain-glorious  fools,  the  missionaries  who  have  sacri- 
ficed their  lives  in  the  South  Sea  Islands  or  China.  What 
good  have  they  done?  They  went  in  one  case  to  those  who 
were  not  yet  ripe  for  any  truth ;  and  in  the  other  to  a  nation 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  235 

whose  systems  of  religious  philosophy  are  as  grand  as  any, 
if  only  the  men  who  have  them  would  live  up  to  the  standard 
of  Confucius  and  their  other  sages.  They  died  victims  of 
irresponsible  cannibals  and  savages,  and  of  popular  fanati- 
cism and  hatred;  whereas,  by  going  to  the  slums  of  White- 
chapel,  or  some  other  such  locality  of  those  that  stagnate 
right  under  the  blazing  sun  of  our  civilization,  full  of  Christ- 
ian savages  and  mental  leprosy,  they  might  have  done  real 
good  and  preserved  their  lives  for  a  better  and  worthier  cause. 

Inq.     But  the  Christians  do  not  think  so. 

ThEo.  Of  course  not,  for  they  act  on  an  erroneous  belief.  They 
think  that  by  baptizing  the  body  of  an  irresponsible  savage 
they  save  his  soul  from  damnation.  One  church  forgets  her 
martyrs,  the  other  beatifies  and  raises  statues  to  such  men  as 
Labre,  who  sacrificed  his  body  for  forty  years  only  to  benefit 
the  vermin  which  it  bred.  Had  we  the  means  to  do  so,  we 
would  raise  a  statue  to  Father  Damien,  the  true  practical 
saint,  and  perpetuate  his  memory  forever  as  a  living  exem- 
plar of  Theosophical  heroism  and  of  Buddha-  and  Christ- 
like mercy  and  self-sacrifice. 

Inq.     Then  you  regard  self-sacrifice  as  a  duty? 

The;o.  We  do ;  and  explain  it  by  showing  that  altruism  is  an  in- 
tegral part  of  self-development.  But  we  have  to  discriminate. 
A  man  has  no  right  to  starve  himself  to  death  that  another 
man  may  have  food,  unless  the  life  of  that  man  is  obviously 
more  useful  to  the  many  than  is  his  own  life.  But  it  is  his 
duty  to  sacrifice  his  own  comfort,  and  to  work  for  others, 
if  they  are  unable  to  work  for  themselves.  It  is  his  duty  to 
give  all  that  is  wholly  his  own  and  can  benefit  no  one  but  him- 


236  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

self  if  he  selfishly  keeps  it  from  others.  Theosophy  teaches 
self-abnegation,  but  does  not  teach  rash  and  useless  self-sac- 
rifice, nor  does  it  justify  fanaticism. 

Inq.     But  how  are  we  to  reach  such  an  elevated  status? 

ThEo.  By  the  enlightened  application  of  our  precepts  to  prac- 
tice; by  the  use  of  our  higher  reason,  spiritual  intuition,  and 
moral  sense;  and  by  following  the  dictates  of  what  we  call 
"  the  still  small  voice  "  of  our  conscience,  which  is  that  of 
our  Ego,  and  speaks  louder  in  us  than  the  earthquakes  and 
the  thunders  of  Jehovah,  wherein  "  the  Lord  is  not." 

Inq.  If  such  are  our  duties  to  humanity  at  large,  what  do  you  understand 
by  our  duties  to  our  immediate  surroundings? 

The;o.  Just  the  same,  plus  those  that  arise  from  special  obliga- 
tions with  regard  to  family  ties. 

Inq,  Then  it  is  not  true,  as  it  is  said,  that  no  sooner  does  a  man  enter  the 
Theosophical  Society  than  he  begins  to  be  gradually  severed  from  his 
wife,  children  and  family  duties? 

ThEo.  It  is  a  groundless  calunmy,  like  so  many  others.  The 
first  of  the  Theosophical  duties  is  to  do  one's  duty  by  all  men, 
and  especially  by  those  to  whom  one's  specific  responsibilities 
are  due,  because  one  has  either  voluntarily  undertaken  them 
—  such  as  marriage  ties  —  or  because  one's  destiny  has  allied 
one  to  them  —  such  as  those  we  owe  to  parents  or  next  of 
kin. 

Inq.     And  what  may  be  the  duty  of  the  Theosophist  to  himself? 

ThEo.  To  control  and  conquer,  through  the  Higher,  the  lower 
self;  to  purify  himself  inwardly  and  morally ;  to  fear  no  one, 
and  naught,  save  the  tribunal  of  his  own  conscience;  never 


THE    KEY    TO    THnoSOPHY  237 

to  do  a  thing  by  halves  —  i.  e.,  if  he  thinks  it  the  right  thing 
to  do,  let  him  do  it  openly  and  boldly;  and  if  wrong,  never 
touch  it  at  all.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  Theosophist  to  lighten  his 
burden  by  thinking  of  the  wise  aphorism  of  Epictetus,  who 
says  : 

Be  not  diverted  from  your  duty  by  any  idle  reflection  the  silly  world 
may  make  upon  you,  for  their  censures  are  not  in  your  power,  and 
consequently  should  not  be  any  part  of  your  concern. 

Ino.  But  suppose  a  member  of  your  Society  should  plead  inability  to  prac- 
tise altruism  to  other  people  on  the  ground  that  "  charity  begins  at 
home;"  urging  that  he  is  too  busy,  or  too  poor,  to  benefit  mankind  or 
even  any  of  its  units;  what  are  your  rules  in  such  a  case? 

ThEO.  No  man,  on  any  pretext  whatever,  has  a  right  to  say  that 
he  can  do  nothing  for  others.  "  By  doing  the  proper  duty 
in  the  proper  place,  a  man  may  make  the  world  his  debtor," 
says  an  English  writer.  A  cup  of  cold  water  given  in  time 
to  a  thirsty  wayfarer  is  a  nobler  duty,  and  of  more  worth, 
than  a  dozen  dinners  given  away,  out  of  season,  to  men  who 
can  afiford  to  pay  for  them.  No  man  who  has  not  got  it  in 
him  will  ever  become  a  Theosophist ;  but  he  may  remain  a 
member  of  our  society  all  the  same.  We  have  no  rules  by 
which  we  can  force  any  man  to  become  a  practical  Theoso- 
phist if  he  does  not  desire  to  be  one. 

Inq.     Then  why  does  he  enter  the  Society  at  all? 

TiiEO.  That  is  best  known  to  him  who  does  so.  For,  here  again, 
we  have  no  right  to  prejudge  a  person,  not  even  if  the  voice 
of  a  whole  community  should  be  against  him,  and  I  may  tell 
you  why.  In  our  day  vox  populi  —  so  far  as  regards  the 
voice  of  the  educated,  at  any  rate  —  is  no  longer  vox  dci, 


238  THE    KBY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

but  ever  that  of  prejudice,  of  selfish  motives,  and  often  sim- 
ply of  unpopularity.  Our  duty  is  to  sow  seeds  broadcast 
for  the  future,  and  see  they  are  good;  not  to  stop  to  enquire 
zvhy  we  should  do  so,  and  how  and  wherefore  we  are  obliged 
to  lose  our  time,  since  those  who  will  reap  the  harvest  in  days 
to  come  will  never  be  ourselves. 


ON  CHARITY 

Inq.     How  do  you  Theosophists  regard  the  Christian  duty  of  charity? 

rHEo.     What  charity  do  you  mean  —  charity  of  mind,  or  prac- 
tical charity  on  the  physical  plane  ? 


'1^ 


Inq.  I  mean  practical  charity,  as  your  idea  of  Universal  brotherhood 
would  include,  of  course,  charity  of  mind. 

ThDO.  Then  you  have  in  your  mind  the  practical  carrying  out 
of  the  commandments  given  by  Jesus  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount? 

Inq.     Precisely  so. 

The:o.  Then  why  call  them  "  Christian  "  ?  For,  although  their 
Savior  preached  them  and  practised  them,  the  last  thing  the 
Christians  of  today  think  of  is  to  carry  them  out  in  their  lives. 

Inq.     And  yet  many  are  those  who  pass  their  lives  in  dispensing  charity. 

ThEO.  Yes,  out  of  the  surplus  of  their  great  fortunes.  But 
point  out  to  me  that  Christian,  among  the  most  philanthropic, 
who  would  give  the  shivering  and  starving  thief  who  steals 
his  coat  his  cloak  also,  or  offer  his  right  cheek  to  him  who 
smites  him  on  the  left,  and  never  think  of  resenting  it. 


^rA 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  239 

Inq.  Ah!  but  you  must  remember  that  these  precepts  are  not  to  be  taken 
Hterally.  Times  and  circumstances  have  changed  since  Christ's  day. 
Moreover,  he  spoke  in  Parables. 

The:o.  Then  why  don't  your  Churches  teach  that  the  doctrine  of 
damnation  and  hell-fire  is  to  be  understood  as  a  parable  too? 
Why  do  some  of  your  most  popular  preachers,  while  virtu- 
ally allowing  these  parables  to  be  understood  as  you  take 
them,  insist  on  the  literal  meaning  of  the  fires  of  Hell  and 
the  physical  tortures  of  an  "Asbestos-like"  soul?  If  one  is 
a  "parable,"  then  the  other  is.  If  Hell-fire  is  a  literal  truth, 
then  Christ's  commandments  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
have  to  be  obeyed  to  the  very  letter.  And  I  tell  you  that  many 
who  do  not  believe  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ  —  like  Count 
Leo  Tolstoi  and  more  than  one  Theosophist  —  do  carry  out 
these  noble  and  universal  precepts  literally;  and  many  more 
good  men  and  women  would  do  so  were  they  not  more  than 
certain  that  such  a  walk  in  life  would  very  probably  land 
them  in  a  lunatic  asylum —  so  Christian  are  your  laws! 

Inq.  But  surely  every  one  knows  that  millions  and  millions  are  spent 
annually  on  private  and  public  charities? 

ThDo.  Oh  yes ;  and  half  of  it  sticks  to  the  hands  it  passes  through 
before  getting  to  the  needy,  while  a  good  portion  of  the  re- 
mainder gets  into  the  hands  of  professional  beggars,  who 
are  too  lazy  to  work,  thus  doing  no  good  whatever  to  those 
who  are  really  in  misery  and  suffering.  Haven't  you  heard 
that  the  first  result  of  the  great  outflow  of  charity  toward 
the  East  End  of  London  was  to  raise  the  rents  in  JJliifcchapcl 
by  some  twenty  per  cent? 

Inq.     What  would  you  do,  then? 


240  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Theo.  Act  individually  and  not  collectively;  follow  the  North- 
ern Buddhist  precepts : 

Never  put  food  into  the  mouth  of  the  hungry  by  the  hand  of  another. 

Never  let  the  shadow  of  thy  neighbour  [a  third  person]  come  be- 
tween thyself  and  the  object  of  thy  bounty. 

Never  give  to  the  sun  time  to  dry  a  tear  before  thou  hast  wiped  it. 

Never  give  money  to  the  needy,  or  food  to  the  priest,  who  begs  at 
thy  door,  through  thy  servants,  lest  thy  money  should  diminish  grati- 
tude, and  thy  food  turn  to  gall. 

Inq.     But  how  can  this  be  applied  practically? 

Theo.  The  Theosophical  idea  of  charity  means  personal  exer- 
tion for  others;  personal  mercy  and  kindness;  personal  in- 
terest in  the  welfare  of  those  who  suffer;  personal  sympathy, 
forethought,  and  assistance  in  their  troubles  or  needs.  The- 
osophists  do  not  believe  in  giving  money  through  other  peo- 
ple's hands  or  organizations.  We  believe  in  giving  to  the 
money  a  thousandfold  greater  power  and  effectiveness  by 
our  personal  contact  and  sympathy  with  those  who  need  it. 
We  believe  in  relieving  the  starvation  of  the  soul,  as  much, 
if  not  more  than,  the  emptiness  of  the  stomach ;  for  gratitude 
does  more  good  to  the  man  who  feels  it  than  to  him  for  whom 
it  is  felt.  Where  is  the  gratitude  which  your  "millions  of 
pounds"  should  have  called  forth,  or  the  good  feelings  pro- 
voked by  them?  Is  it  shown  in  the  hatred  of  the  East  End 
poor  for  the  rich,  in  the  growth  of  the  party  of  anarchy  and 
disorder,  or  by  those  thousands  of  unfortunate  working- 
girls,  victims  to  the  "sweating"  system,  driven  daily  to  eke 
out  a  living  by  going  on  the  streets?  Do  your  helpless  old 
men  and  women  thank  you  for  the  workhouses ;  or  your  poor 
for  the  poisonously  unhealthy  dwellings  in  which  they  are 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  241 

allowed  to  breed  new  generations  of  diseased,  scrofulous, 
and  rickety  children,  only  to  put  money  into  the  pockets  of 
the  insatiable  Shylocks  who  own  houses?  Therefore  it  is 
that  every  sovereign  of  all  those  ''millions"  contributed  by 
good  and  would-be  charitable  people  falls  like  a  burning 
curse  instead  of  a  blessing  on  the  poor  whom  it  should  relieve. 
We  call  this,  generating  national  Karma,  and  terrible  will 
be  its  results  on  the  day  of  reckoning. 

THEOSOPHY  FOR  THE  MASSES 

Inq.  And  you  think  that  Theosophy  would,  by  stepping  in,  help  to  remove 
these  evils,  under  the  practical  and  adverse  conditions  of  our  modern 
life? 

ThEo.  Had  we  more  money,  and  had  not  most  of  the  Theosoph- 
ists  to  work  for  their  daily  bread,  I  firmly  believe  we  could. 

Inq.  How?  Do  you  expect  that  your  doctrines  could  ever  take  hold  of 
the  uneducated  masses,  when  they  are  so  abstruse  and  difficult  that 
well-educated  people  can  hardly  understand  them? 

ThEO.  You  forget  one  thing:  that  your  much-boasted  modern 
education  is  precisely  that  which  makes  it  difficult  for  you 
to  understand  Theosophy.  Your  mind  is  so  full  of  intellect- 
ual subtleties  and  preconceptions  that  your  natural  intuition 
and  perception  of  truth  cannot  act.  It  does  not  require  meta- 
physics or  education  to  make  a  man  understand  the  broad 
truths  of  Karma  and  Reincarnation.  Look  at  the  millions 
of  poor  and  uneducated  Buddhists  and  Hindus,  to  whom 
Karma  and  Reincarnation  are  solid  realities,  simply  because 
their  minds  have  never  been  cramped  and  distorted  by  being 
forced  into  an  unnatural  groove.    They  have  never  had  the 


242  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

innate  human  sense  of  justice  perverted  in  them  by  being 
told  to  believe  that  their  sins  would  be  forgiven  because  an- 
other man  had  been  put  to  death  for  their  sakes.  And  the 
Buddhists,  note  well,  live  up  to  their  beliefs  without  a  mur- 
mur against  Karma  or  what  they  regard  as  a  just  punish- 
ment; whereas  the  Christian  populace  neither  lives  up  to  its 
moral  ideal,  nor  accepts  its  lot  contentedly.  Hence  murmur- 
ing and  dissatisfaction,  and  the  intensity  of  the  struggle  for 
existence  in  Western  lands. 

Inq.  But  this  contentedness,  which  you  praise  so  much,  would  do  away 
with  all  motive  for  exertion  and  bring  progress  to  a  standstill. 

Theo.  And  we  Theosophists  say  that  your  vaunted  progress  and 
civilization  are  no  better  than  a  host  of  will-o'  the-wisps  flick- 
ering over  a  marsh  which  exhales  a  poisonous  and  deadly 
miasma.  This  because  we  see  selfishness,  crime,  immorality, 
and  all  the  evils  imaginable,  pouncing  upon  unfortunate 
mankind  from  this  Pandora's  box  which  you  call  an  age  of 
progress,  and  increasing  pari  passu  with  the  growth  of  your 
material  civilization.  At  such  a  price,  better  the  inertia  and 
inactivity  of  Buddhist  countries,  which  have  resulted  only  as 
a  consequence  of  ages  of  political  slavery. 

Inq.  Then  is  all  this  metaphysics  and  mysticism  with  which  you  occupy 
yourself  so  much,  of  no  importance? 

Theo.  To  the  masses,  who  need  only  practical  guidance  and 
support,  they  are  not  of  much  consequence;  but  for  the 
educated,  the  natural  leaders  of  the  masses,  those  whose 
modes  of  thought  and  action  will  sooner  or  later  be  ad- 
opted by  those  masses,  they  are  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance.    It  is  only  by  means  of  the  philosophy  that  an  in- 


THE   KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  243 

telligent  and  educated  man  can  avoid  the  intellectual  suicide 
of  believing  on  blind  faith;  and  it  is  only  by  assimilating 
the  strict  continuity  and  logical  coherence  of  the  Eastern, 
if  not  esoteric,  doctrines  that  he  can  realize  their  truth. 
Conviction  breeds  enthusiasm,  and  "  enthusiasm,"  says  Bul- 
wer  Lytton,  "  is  the  genius  of  sincerity,  and  truth  accom- 
plishes no  victories  without  it;"  while  Emerson  most  truly 
remarks  that  "  every  great  and  commanding  movement  in 
the  annals  of  the  world  is  the  triumph  of  enthusiasm."  And 
what  is  more  calculated  to  produce  such  a  feeling  than  a 
philosophy  so  grand,  so  consistent,  so  logical,  and  so  all- 
embracing  as  our  Eastern  doctrines  ? 

Inq.  And  yet  its  enemies  are  very  numerous,  and  every  day  Theosophy 
acquires  new  opponents. 

ThKO.  And  this  is  precisely  what  proves  its  intrinsic  excellence 
and  value.  People  hate  only  the  things  they  fear,  and  no  one 
goes  out  of  his  way  to  overthrow  that  which  neither  threatens 
nor  rises  above  mediocrity. 

Inq.     Do  you  hope  to  impart  this  enthusiasm,  one  day,  to  the  masses? 

ThEO.  Why  not  ?  —  since  history  tells  us  that  the  masses  adopted 
Buddhism  with  enthusiasm,  while,  as  said  before,  the  prac- 
tical effect  upon  them  of  this  philosophy  of  ethics  is  still 
shown  by  the  smallness  of  the  percentage  of  crime  among 
Buddhist  populations  as  compared  with  every  other  religion. 
The  chief  point  is  to  uproot  that  most  fertile  source  of  all 
crime  and  immorality  —  the  belief  that  it  is  possible  for  men 
to  escape  the  consequences  of  their  own  actions.  Once  teach 
them  that  greatest  of  all  laws.  Karma  and  Reincarnation,  and 
besides  feeling  in  themselves  the  true  dignity  of  human  na- 


244  THE    KHV    TO    THBOSOPHV 

ture,  they  will  turn  from  evil  and  eschew  it  as  they  would  a 
physical  danger. 


HOW  MEMBERS  CAN  HELP  THE  SOCIETY 
Inq.     How  do  you  expect  the  Fellows  of  your  Society  to  help  in  the  work? 

Theo.  First,  by  studying  and  comprehending  the  Theosophical 
doctrines,  so  that  they  may  teach  others,  especially  the  young 
people.  Secondly,  by  taking  every  opportunity  of  talking  to 
others  and  explaining  to  them  what  Theosophy  is  and  what 
it  is  not;  by  removing  misconceptions  and  spreading  an  in- 
terest in  the  subject.  Thirdly,  by  assisting  in  circulating 
our  literature  by  buying  books  when  they  have  the  means,  by 
lending  and  giving  them,  and  by  inducing  their  friends  to 
do  so.  Fourthly,  by  defending  the  Society  from  the  unjust 
aspersions  cast  upon  it  by  every  legitimate  device  in  their 
power.  Fifthly,  and  most  important  of  all,  by  the  example 
of  their  own  lives. 

Inq.  But  all  this  literature,  to  the  spread  of  which  you  attach  so  much 
importance,  does  not  seem  to  me  of  much  practical  use  in  helping 
mankind.     This  is  not  practical  charity. 

The:o.  We  think  otherwise.  We  hold  that  a  good  book  which 
gives  people  food  for  thought,  which  strengthens  and  clears 
their  minds,  and  enables  them  to  grasp  truths  which  they 
have  dimly  felt,  but  could  not  formulate  —  we  hold  that  such 
a  book  does  a  real,  substantial  good.  As  to  what  you  call 
practical  deeds  of  charity,  to  benefit  the  bodies  of  our  fellow- 
men,  we  do  what  little  we  can ;  but,  as  I  have  already  told  you, 
most  of  us  are  poor,  while  the  Society  itself  has  not  even  the 
money  to  pay  a  staflf  of  workers.     All  of  us  who  toil  for  it 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  245 

give  our  labor  gratis,  and  in  most  cases  money  as  well.  The 
few  who  have  the  means  of  doing  what  are  usually  called 
charitable  actions  follow  the  Buddhist  precepts  and  do  their 
work  themselves  —  not  by  proxy  or  by  subscribing  publicly 
to  charitable  funds.  What  a  Theosophist  has  to  do  above 
all  is  to  forget  his  personality. 


WHAT  A  THEOSOPHIST  OUGHT  NOT  TO  DO 

Inq.  Have  you  any  prohibitory  laws  or  clauses  for  Theosophists  in  your 
Society  ? 

Theo.  Many;  but  alas!  none  of  them  are  enforced.  They  ex- 
press the  ideal  of  our  organization;  but  the  practical  applic- 
ation of  such  things  we  are  compelled  to  leave  to  the  discre- 
tion of  the  Fellows  themselves.  Unfortunately,  the  state  of 
men's  minds  in  the  present  century  is  such  that,  unless  we 
allow  these  clauses  to  remain,  so  to  speak,  obsolete,  no  man 
or  woman  would  dare  to  risk  joining  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety. This  is  precisely  why  I  feel  forced  to  lay  such  a  stress 
on  the  difference  between  true  Theosophy  and  its  hard- 
struggling  and  well-intentioned  but  still  unworthy  vehicle,  the 
Theosophical  Society. 

Inq.  May  I  be  told  what  are  these  perilous  reefs  in  the  open  sea  of 
Theosophy  ? 

ThEo.  Well  may  you  call  them  reefs,  as  more  than  one  other- 
wise sincere  and  well-meaning  Fellow  of  the  Theosophical 
Society  has  had  his  Theosophical  canoe  shattered  into  splin- 
ters on  them!  And  yet  to  avoid  certain  things  seems  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  do.     For  instance,  here  is  a 


246  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

series  of   such  negatives,   screening  positive  Theosophical 
duties: 

No  Theosophist  should  be  silent  when  he  hears  evil  reports 
or  slanders  spread  about  the  Society  or  innocent  persons, 
whether  they  be  his  colleagues  or  outsiders. 

Inq.  But  suppose  what  one  hears  is  the  truth,  or  may  be  true  without  one 
knowing  it? 

ThEo.  Then  you  must  demand  good  proofs  of  the  assertion, 
and  hear  both  sides  impartially,  before  you  permit  the  accus- 
ation to  go  uncontradicted.  You  have  no  right  to  believe  in 
evil  until  you  get  undeniable  proof  of  the  correctness  of 
the  statement. 

Inq.    And  what  should  you  do  then? 

ThEo.  Pity  and  forbearance,  charity  and  long-suffering,  ought 
to  be  always  there  to  prompt  us  to  excuse  our  sinning  breth- 
ren, and  to  pass  the  gentlest  sentence  possible  upon  those 
who  err.  A  Theosophist  ought  never  to  forget  what  is  due 
to  the  shortcomings  and  infirmities  of  human  nature. 

Inq.     Ought  he  to  forgive  entirely  in  such  cases? 

Theo.     In  every  case,  especially  he  who  is  sinned  against. 

Inq.  But  if  by  so  doing  he  risks  injuring  or  allows  others  to  be  injured, 
what  ought  he  to  do  then? 

Theo.  His  duty  —  that  which  his  conscience  and  higher  nature 
suggest  to  him;  but  only  after  mature  deliberation.  Justice 
consists  in  doing  no  injury  to  any  living  being;  but  justice 
commands  us  also  never  to  allow  injury  to  be  done  to  the 
many,  or  even  to  one  innocent  person,  by  allowing  the  guilty 
one  to  go  unchecked. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  ,  247 

Inq.    What  are  the  other  negative  clauses? 

Theo.  No  Theosophist  ought  to  be  contented  with  an  idle  or 
frivolous  life,  doing  no  real  good  to  himself  and  still  less  to 
others.  He  should  work  for  the  benefit  of  the  few  who  need 
his  help,  if  he  is  unable  to  toil  for  Humanity,  and  thus  work 
for  the  advancement  of  the  Theosophical  cause. 

Inq.  This  demands  an  exceptional  nature,  and  would  come  rather  hard 
upon  some  persons. 

Theo.  Then  they  had  better  remain  outside  of  the  Theosophical 
Society,  instead  of  sailing  under  false  colors.  No  one  is 
asked  to  give  more  than  he  can  afford,  whether  in  devotion, 
time,  work  or  money. 

Inq.     What  comes  next? 

Theo.  No  working  member  should  set  too  great  value  on  his 
personal  progress  or  proficiency  in  Theosophic  studies;  but 
must  be  prepared,  rather,  to  do  as  much  altruistic  work  as 
lies  in  his  power.  He  should  not  leave  the  whole  of  the 
heavy  burden  and  responsibility  of  the  Theosophical  move- 
ment on  the  shoulders  of  the  few  devoted  workers.  Each 
member  ought  to  feel  it  his  duty  to  take  what  share  he  can  in 
the  common  work,  and  help  it  by  every  means  in  his  power. 

Inq.     This  is  but  just.     What  comes  next? 

Theo.  No  Theosophist  should  place  his  personal  vanity  or  feel- 
ings above  those  of  his  Society  as  a  body.  He  who  sacrifices 
the  latter,  or  other  people's  reputations,  on  the  altar  of  his 
personal  vanity,  worldly  benefit  or  pride,  ought  not  to  be  al- 
lowed to  remain  a  member.  One  cancerous  limb  diseases 
the  whole  body. 


248  THE    KHY    TO    THnOSOPHV 

Inq.     Is  it  the  duty  of  every  member  to  teach  others  and  preach  Theosophy? 

Theo.  It  is  indeed.  No  Fellow  has  a  right  to  remain  idle  on  the 
excuse  that  he  knows  too  little  to  teach.  For  he  may  always 
be  sure  that  he  will  find  others  who  know  still  less  than  him- 
self. And  also  it  is  not  until  a  man  begins  to  try  to  teach 
others  that  he  discovers  his  own  ignorance  and  tries  to  re- 
move it.     But  this  is  a  minor  clause. 

Inq.  What  do  you  consider,  then,  to  be  the  chief  of  these  negative  Theo- 
sophical  duties? 

Theo.  To  be  ever  prepared  to  recognize  and  confess  one's  faults ; 
to  sin  rather  through  exaggerated  praise  than  through  too 
little  appreciation  of  one's  neighbor's  efforts ;  never  to  back- 
bite or  slander  another  person;  always  to  say  openly  and 
direct  to  his  face  anything  you  have  against  him;  never  to 
make  yourself  the  echo  of  anything  you  may  hear  against 
another,  nor  harbor  revenge  against  those  who  happen  to 
injure  you. 

Inq.  But  it  is  often  dangerous  to  tell  people  the  truth  to  their  faces.  Don't 
you  think  so?  I  know  of  one  of  your  members  who  was  bitterly  of- 
fended, left  the  Society,  and  became  its  greatest  enemy,  only  because 
he  was  told  some  unpleasant  truths  to  his  face,  and  was  blamed  for 
them. 

Theo.  Of  such  we  have  had  many.  No  member,  whether  pro- 
minent or  insignificant,  has  ever  left  us  without  becoming 
our  bitter  enemy. 

Inq.    How  do  you  account  for  it? 

Theo.  It  is  simply  this:  having  been,  in  most  cases,  intensely 
devoted  to  the  Society  at  first,  and  having  lavished  upon  it 
the  most  exaggerated  praises,  the  only  possible  excuse  such 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  249 

a  backslider  can  make  for  his  subsequent  behavior  and  past 
short-sightedness  is  to  pose  as  an  innocent  and  deceived  vic- 
tim, thus  casting  the  blame  from  his  own  shoulders  onto 
those  of  the  Society  in  general,  and  its  leaders  especially. 
Such  persons  remind  one  of  the  old  fable  about  the  man  with 
a  distorted  face,  who  broke  his  looking-glass  in  the  belief 
that  it  reflected  his  countenance  crookedly. 

Inq.     But  what  makes  these  people  turn  against  the  Society? 

ThEO.  Wounded  vanity  in  some  form  or  another,  almost  in 
every  case.  Generally  because  their  dicta  and  advice  are 
not  taken  as  final  and  authoritative,  or  else  because  they  are 
of  those  who  would  rather  reign  in  Hell  than  serve  in 
Heaven.  Because,  in  short,  they  cannot  bear  to  stand  second 
to  anybody  in  anything.  So,  for  instance,  one  member  —  a 
true  *' Sir  Oracle"  —  criticized  and  almost  defamed  every 
member  in  the  Theosophical  Society  to  outsiders  as  much  as 
to  Theosophists,  under  the  pretext  that  they  were  all  iintheo- 
sophical,  blaming  them  precisely  for  what  he  was  himself 
doing  all  the  time.  Finally  he  left  the  Society,  giving  as  his 
reason  a  profound  conviction  that  we  were  all  (the  founders 
especially)  Frauds!  Another  one,  after  intriguing  in  every 
possible  way  to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  a  large  section  of  the 
Society,  finding  that  the  members  would  not  have  him,  turned 
against  the  founders  of  the  Theosophical  Society  and  became 
their  bitterest  enemy,  denouncing  one  of  them  whenever  he 
could,  simply  because  the  latter  could  not,  and  would  not, 
force  him  upon  the  members.  This  was  simply  a  case  of  an 
outrageous  wounded  vanity.  Still  another  wanted  to,  and 
virtually  did,  practise  black  magic  —  f  e.,  undue  personal  psy- 


2S0  THE    KBY    TO    THEOSOPMV 

chological  influence  —  on  certain  Fellows,  while  pretending 
devotion  and  every  Theosophical  virtue.  When  this  was  put 
a  stop  to,  the  member  broke  with  Theosophy,  and  now  slan- 
ders and  lies  against  the  same  hapless  leaders  in  the  most 
virulent  manner,  endeavoring  to  break  up  the  Society  by 
blackening  the  reputation  of  those  whom  that  worthy  person 
was  unable  to  deceive. 

Inq.     What  would  you  do  with  such  characters? 

Theo.  Leave  them  to  their  Karma.  Because  one  person  does 
evil,  that  is  no  reason  for  others  to  do  so. 

Inq.  But  to  return  to  slander,  where  is  the  line  of  demarcation  between 
backbiting  and  just  criticism  to  be  drawn?  Is  it  not  one's  duty  to 
warn  one's  friends  and  neighbors  against  those  whom  one  knows  to  be 
dangerous  associates? 

ThEo.  If  by  allowing  them  to  go  on  unchecked,  other  persons 
may  be  thereby  injured,  it  is  certainly  our  duty  to  obviate  the 
danger  by  warning  them  privately.  But,  true  or  false,  no  ac- 
cusation against  another  person  should  ever  be  spread  abroad. 
If  true,  and  the  fault  hurts  no  one  but  the  sinner,  then  leave 
him  to  his  Karma.  If  false,  then  you  will  have  avoided 
adding  to  the  injustice  in  the  world.  Therefore  keep  silent 
about  such  things  with  every  one  not  directly  concerned. 
But  if  your  discretion  and  silence  are  likely  to  hurt  or  en- 
danger others,  then  I  add.  Speak  the  truth  at  all  costs,  and 
say  with  Annesley,  "  Consult  duty,  not  events."  There  are 
cases  when  one  is  forced  to  exclaim,  "  Perish  discretion 
rather  than  allow  it  to  interfere  with  duty." 

Inq.  Methinks,  if  you  carry  out  these  maxims,  you  are  likely  to  reap  a 
nice  crop  of  troubles! 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  251 

ThEo.  And  so  we  do.  We  have  to  admit  that  we  are  now  open 
to  the  same  taunt  as  the  early  Christians  were.  "  See  how 
these  Theosophists  love  one  another  ! "  may  now  be  said  of 
us  without  a  shadow  of  injustice. 

Inq.  Admitting  yourself  that  there  is  at  least  as  much,  if  not  more,  back- 
biting, slandering  and  quarreling  in  the  Theosophical  Society  as  in  the 
Christian  churches,  let  alone  scientific  societies  —  What  kind  of  Bro- 
therhood is  this,  may  I  ask  ? 

Theo.  a  very  poor  specimen  indeed  as  at  present,  and,  until 
carefully  sifted  and  reorganized,^^  no  better  than  others.  Re- 

60.  [The  Society  was  first  re-organized  in  1895,  when  William  Q.  Judge  was  elected 
President  for  life,  and  when  the  first  great  sifting  took  place. 

As  the  work  increased  a  further  sifting  became  necessary  and  more  protective 
means  had  to  be  adopted  for  preserving  the  work  and  the  larger  and  ever  grow- 
ing interests  of  the  Theosophical  Movement.  To  this  end  Katherine  Tingley  re- 
organized it  and  formulated  the  Constitution  under  which  it  is  now  active. 
This  further  sifting  and  reorganization  took  place  February  18th,  1898  at  Chicago, 
when  the  Theosophical  Society,  at  its  Annual  Convention,  accepted  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Universal  Brotherhoood  and  Theosophical  Society  and  by  that 
action  became  an  integral  part  thereof. 

It  is  a  regrettable  fact  that  many  people  use  the  name  of  Theosophy  and  of  our 
Organization  for  self-interest,  as  also  that  of  H.  P.  Blavatsky,  the  Foundress,  to 
attract  attention  to  themselves  and  to  gain  public  support.  This  they  do  in  priv- 
ate and  public  speech  and  in  publications,  also  by  lecturing  throughout  the  country. 
Without  being  in  any  way  connected  with  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and  The- 
osophical Society,  in  many  cases  they  permit  it  to  be  inferred  that  they  are,  thus 
misleading  the  public,  and  many  honest  inquirers  are  hence  led  away  from  the 
truths  of  Theosophy  as  presented  by  H.  P.  Blavatsky  and  her  successors,  W.  Q. 
Judge  and  Katherine  Tingley,  and  practically  exemplified  in  their  Theosophical 
work  for  the  uplifting  of  humanity. 

It  should  be  distinctly  understood  that  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and 
Theosophical  Society  recognizes  no  other  society  or  body  using  the  name  of 
Theosophy;  and  that  its  members  are  in  no  wise  affiliated  with  any  other  society 
or  body  calling  itself  Theosophical  and  not  recognizing  Katherine  Tingley  as  the 
Leader  and  Official  Head  of  the  international  Theosophical  Movement.  The 
International  Headquarters  of  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical 
Society   are   at   Point   Loma,   California.] 


252  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

member,  however,  that  human  nature  is  the  same  in  the 
Theosophical  Society  as  out  of  it.  Its  members  are  no  saints ; 
they  are  at  best  sinners  trying  to  do  better,  and  Hable  to  fall 
back  owing  to  personal  weakness.  Add  to  this  that  our 
"  Brotherhood  "  is  no  "  recognized  "  or  established  body,  and 
stands,  so  to  speak,  outside  of  the  pale  of  jurisdiction.  Be- 
sides which,  it  is  in  a  chaotic  condition,  and  more  unjustly 
unpopular  than  any  other  body.  What  wonder  then,  that 
those  members  who  fail  to  carry  out  its  ideal  should,  after 
leaving  the  Society,  turn  for  sympathetic  protection  to  our 
enemies,  and  pour  all  their  gall  and  bitterness  into  their  too 
willing  ears!  Knowing  that  they  will  find  support,  sym- 
pathy and  ready  credence  for  every  accusation,  however  ab- 
surd, that  it  may  please  them  to  launch  against  the  Theo- 
sophical Society,  they  hasten  to  do  so,  and  vent  their  wrath 
on  the  innocent  looking-glass  which  reflected  too  faithfully 
their  faces.  People  never  forgive  those  whom  they  have 
wronged.  The  sense  of  kindness  received,  and  repaid  by 
them  with  ingratitude,  drives  them  into  a  madness  of  self- 
justification  before  the  world  and  their  own  consciences. 
The  former  is  but  too  ready  to  believe  in  anything  said 
against  a  society  it  hates.  The  latter  —  but  I  will  say  no 
more,  fearing  I  have  already  said  too  much. 

Inq.     Your  position  does  not  seem  to  me  a  very  enviable  one. 

ThEo.  It  is  not.  But  do  you  not  think  that  there  must  be  some- 
thing very  noble,  very  exalted,  very  true,  behind  the  Society 
and  its  philosophy,  when  the  leaders  and  the  founders  of  the 
movement  still  continue  to  work  for  it  with  all  their  strength  ? 
They  sacrifice  to  it  all  comfort,  all  worldly  prosperity  and  sue- 


THB    KHV    TO    THEOSOPHY  253 

cess,  even  to  their  good  name  and  reputation  —  aye,  even  to 
their  honor  —  to  receive  in  return  incessant  and  ceaseless  ob- 
loquy, relentless  persecution,  untiring  slander,  constant  in- 
gratitude, and  misunderstanding  of  their  best  efforts  —  blows 
and  buffets  from  all  sides  —  when  by  simply  dropping  their 
work  they  would  find  themselves  immediately  released  from 
every  responsibility,  shielded  from  every  further  attack. 

Ino.  I  confess  such  a  perseverance  seems  to  me  very  astounding,  and  I 
wondered  why  you  did  all  this. 

Thdo.  Believe  me,  for  no  self-gratification ;  only  in  the  hope  of 
training  a  few  individuals  to  carry  on  our  work  for  humanity 
with  its  original  program  when  the  founders  are  dead  and 
gone.  They  have  already  found  a  few  such  noble  and  de- 
voted souls  to  replace  them.  The  coming  generations,  thanks 
to  these  few,  will  find  the  path  to  peace  a  little  less  thorny, 
and  the  way  a  little  widened,  and  thus  all  this  suffering  will 
have  produced  good  results,  and  their  self-sacrifice  will  not 
have  been  in  vain.  At  present  the  main,  fundamental  object 
of  the  Society  is  to  sow  germs  in  the  hearts  of  men  which 
may  in  time  sprout  and,  under  more  propitious  circumstances, 
lead  to  a  healthy  reform  conducive  of  more  happiness  to  the 
masses  than  they  have  hitherto  enjoyed. 


254  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 


XIII 

ON  THE  MISCONCEPTIONS  ABOUT  THE  THEO- 

SOPHICAL  SOCIETY" 


THEOSOPHY  AND  ASCETICISM 

Inq.  I  have  heard  people  say  that  your  rules  required  all  members  to  be 
vegetarians,  celibates  and  rigid  ascetics ;  but  you  have  not  told  me 
anything  of  the  sort  yet.  Can  you  tell  me  the  truth  once  for  all  about 
this? 

ThKo.  The  truth  is  that  our  rules  require  nothing  of  the  kind. 
The  Theosophical  Society  does  not  even  expect,  far  less  re- 
quire, of  any  of  its  members  that  they  should  be  ascetics  in 
any  way,  except  —  if  you  call  that  asceticism  —  that  they 
should  try  and  benefit  other  people  and  be  unselfish  in  their 
own  lives. 

Inq.  But  still  many  of  your  members  are  strict  vegetarians,  and  openly 
avow  their  intention  of  remaining  unmarried.  This,  too,  is  most  often 
the  case  with  those  who  take  a  prominent  part  in  connection  with  the 
work  of  your  Society. 

Theo.  That  is  only  natural,  because  most  of  our  really  earnest 
workers  are  members  of  the  Inner  Section  of  the  Society, 
about  which  I  told  you  before. 

61.     See   note  60. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  255 

Inq.     Oh,  then  you  do  require  ascetic  practices  in  that  Inner  Section? 

Theo.  No,  we  do  not  require  or  enjoin  them  even  there.  But  I 
see  that  I  had  better  give  you  an  explanation  of  our  views  on 
the  subject  of  asceticism  in  general,  and  then  you  will  under- 
stand about  vegetarianism  and  so  on. 

Inq.     Please  proceed. 

Th^o.  As  I  have  already  told  you,  most  people  who  become 
really  earnest  students  of  Theosophy  and  active  workers  in 
our  Society  wish  to  do  more  than  study  theoretically  the 
truths  we  teach.  They  wish  to  ktiozv  the  truth  by  their  own 
direct  personal  experience,  and  to  study  Occultism  with  the 
object  of  acquiring  the  wisdom  and  power  which  they  feel 
they  need  in  order  to  help  others  effectually  and  judiciously, 
instead  of  blindly  and  at  haphazard.  Therefore,  sooner  or 
later,  they  join  the  Inner  Section. 

Inq.  But  you  said  that  "ascetic  practices"  are  not  obligatory  even  in  that 
Inner  Section. 

ThEO.  No  more  they  are ;  but  the  first  thing  which  the  members 
learn  there  is  a  true  conception  of  the  relation  of  the  body, 
or  physical  sheath,  to  the  inner,  the  true  man.  The  relation 
and  mutual  interaction  between  these  two  aspects  of  human 
nature  are  explained  and  demonstrated  to  them,  so  that  they 
soon  become  imbued  with  the  supreme  importance  of  the 
inner  man  over  the  outer  case  or  body.  They  are  taught  that 
blind,  unintelligent  asceticism  is  mere  folly;  that  such  con- 
duct as  that  of  St.  Labre,  of  which  I  spoke  before,  or  that  of 
the  Indian  fakirs  and  jungle  ascetics,  who  cut,  burn  and 
macerate  their  bodies  in  the  most  cruel  and  horrible  manner, 


256  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

is  simply  self-torture  for  selfish  ends  —  i.e.,  to  develop  will- 
power —  but  is  perfectly  useless  for  the  purpose  of  assisting 
true  spiritual  or  Theosophic  development. 

Inq,  I  see  you  regard  only  moral  asceticism  as  necessary.  It  is  as  a  means 
to  an  end,  that  end  being  the  perfect  equilibrium  of  the  inner  nature 
of  man,  and  the  attainment  of  complete  mastery  over  the  body,  with 
all  its  passions  and  desires. 

ThKo.  Just  so.  But  these  means  must  be  used  intelligently  and 
wisely,  not  blindly  and  foolishly;  like  an  athlete  who  is 
training  and  preparing  for  a  great  contest,  not  like  the  miser 
who  starves  himself  into  illness  that  he  may  gratify  his 
passion  for  gold. 

Inq.  I  understand  now  your  general  idea;  but  let  us  see  how  you  apply 
it  in  practice.     How  about  vegetarianism,  for  instance? 

The:o.  One  of  the  great  German  scientists  has  shown  that  every 
kind  of  animal  tissue,  however  you  may  cook  it,  still  retains 
certain  marked  characteristics  of  the  animal  to  which  it  be- 
longed, and  these  characteristics  can  be  recognized.  Apart 
from  that,  also,  every  one  knows  by  the  taste  what  meat  he 
is  eating.  We  go  a  step  farther,  and  prove  that  when  the 
flesh  of  animals  is  assimilated  by  man  as  food,  it  imparts  to 
him,  physiologically,  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  animal 
it  came  from.  Moreover,  occult  science  teaches  and  proves 
this  to  its  students  by  ocular  demonstration,  showing  also 
that  this  "coarsening"  or  "animalizing"  efifect  on  man  is 
greatest  from  the  flesh  of  the  larger  animals,  less  for  birds, 
still  less  for  fish  and  other  cold-blooded  animals,  and  least  of 
all  when  he  eats  only  vegetables. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  257 

Inq.     Then  he  had  better  not  eat  at  all. 

Theo.  If  he  could  live  without  eating,  of  course  he  had.  But 
as  the  matter  stands,  he  must  eat  to  live,  and  so  we  advise 
really  earnest  students  to  eat  such  food  as  will  least  clog  and 
weight  their  brains  and  bodies,  and  will  have  the  smallest  ef- 
fect in  hampering  and  retarding  the  development  of  their 
intuition,  their  inner  faculties  and  powers. 

Inq.  Then  you  do  not  adopt  all  the  arguments  which  vegetarians  in  general 
are  in  the  habit  of  using? 

Theo.  Certainly  not.  Some  of  their  arguments  are  very  weak, 
and  often  based  on  assumptions  which  are  quite  false.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  many  of  the  things  they  say  are  quite  true. 
For  instance,  we  believe  that  much  disease,  and  especially  the 
great  predisposition  to  disease  which  is  becoming  so  marked 
a  feature  in  our  time,  is  very  largely  due  to  the  eating  of 
meat,  and  especially  of  tinned  meats.  But  it  would  take  too 
long  to  go  thoroughly  into  this  question  of  vegetarianism 
on  its  merits ;  so  please  pass  on  to  something  else. 

Inq.  One  question  more:  What  are  your  members  of  the  Inner  Section 
to  do  with  regard  to  their  food  when  they  are  ill? 

Theo.  Follow  the  best  practical  advice  they  can  get,  of  course. 
Do  you  not  grasp  yet  that  we  never  impose  any  hard-and-fast 
obligations  in  this  respect?  Remember  once  for  all  that  in 
all  such  questions  we  take  a  rational,  and  never  a  fanatical, 
view  of  things.  If  from  illness  or  long  habit  a  man  cannot 
go  without  meat,  why,  by  all  means,  let  him  eat  it.  It  is  no 
crime ;  it  will  only  retard  his  progress  a  little ;  for  after  all  is 
said  and  done,  the  purely  bodily  actions  and  functions  are  of 
far  less  importance  than  what  a  man  fhiuks  and  fccis;  what 


258  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

desires  he  encourages  in  his  mind,  and  allows  to  take  root  and 
grow  there. 

Inq,  Then  with  regard  to  the  use  of  wine  and  spirits :  I  suppose  you  do 
not  advise  people  to  drink  them? 

ThEo.  They  are  worse  for  a  man's  moral  and  spiritual  growth 
than  meat,  for  alcohol  in  all  its  forms  has  a  direct,  marked 
and  very  deleterious  influence  on  his  psychic  condition.  Wine 
and  spirit  drinking  is  only  less  destructive  to  the  development 
of  the  inner  powers  than  the  habitual  use  of  hashish,  opium 
and  similar  drugs. 


THEOSOPHY  AND  MARRIAGE 

Inq.     Now  another  question:    Must  a  man  marry  or  remain  a  celibate? 

ThEo.  It  depends  on  the  kind  of  man  you  mean.  If  you  refer 
to  one  who  intends  to  live  in  the  world ;  one  who,  even  though 
a  good,  earnest  Theosophist,  and  an  ardent  worker  for  our 
cause,  still  has  ties  and  wishes  which  bind  him  to  the  world; 
who,  in  short,  does  not  feel  that  he  has  done  forever  with 
what  men  call  life,  and  that  he  desires  one  thing  and  one 
thing  only  —  to  know  the  truth  and  to  be  able  to  help  others 
—  then  for  such  a  one  I  say  there  is  no  reason  why  he  should 
not  marry,  if  he  likes  to  take  the  risks  of  that  lottery  where 
there  are  so  many  more  blanks  than  prizes.  Surely  you 
cannot  believe  us  so  absurd  and  fanatical  as  to  preach  against 
marriage  altogether  ?  On  the  contrary,  save  in  a  few  excep- 
tional cases  of  practical  Occultism,  marriage  is  the  only 
remedy  against  immorality. 


THE    KEY    TO    TH  BO  SOPHY  250 

Inq.  But  why  cannot  one  acquire  this  knowledge  and  power  when  living 
a  married  life? 

ThEO.  My  dear  sir,  I  cannot  go  into  physiological  questions  with 
you ;  but  I  can  give  you  an  obvious  and,  I  think,  a  sufficient 
answer,  which  will  explain  to  you  the  moral  reasons  we  give 
for  it.  Can  a  man  serve  two  masters?  No!  Then  it  is 
equally  impossible  for  him  to  divide  his  attention  between 
the  pursuit  of  Occultism  and  a  wife.  If  he  tries  to,  he  will 
assuredly  fail  in  doing  either  properly;  and,  let  me  remind 
you,  practical  Occultism  is  far  too  serious  and  dangerous  a 
study  for  a  man  to  take  up  unless  he  is  in  the  most  deadly 
earnest,  and  ready  to  sacrifice  all  —  himself  first  of  all —  to 
gain  his  end.  But  this  does  not  apply  to  the  members  of  our 
Inner  Section.  I  am  only  referring  to  those  who  are  deter- 
mined to  tread  that  path  of  discipleship  which  leads  to  the 
highest  goal.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  those  who  join  our  Inner 
Section  are  only  beginners,  preparing  themselves  in  this  life 
to  enter  in  reality  upon  that  path  in  lives  to  come. 


THEOSOPHY  AND  EDUCATION 

Inq.  One  of  your  strongest  arguments  for  the  inadequacy  of  the  existing 
forms  of  religion  in  the  West,  as  also  to  some  extent  the  materialistic 
philosophy  which  is  now  so  popular,  but  which  you  seem  to  consider 
as  an  abomination  of  desolation,  is  the  large  amount  of  misery  and 
wretchedness  which  undeniably  exists,  especially  in  our  great  cities. 
But  surely  you  must  recognize  how  much  has  been  and  is  being  done 
to  remedy  this  state  of  things  by  the  spread  of  education  and  the 
diffusion  of  intelligence. 

The;o.     The  future  generations  will  hardly  thank  you  for  such  a 


26Q  THB    KBY    TO    THBOSOPMY 

"  diffusion  of  intelligence,"  nor  will  your  present  education 
do  much  good  to  the  poor  starving  masses. 

Inq.  Ah!  but  you  must  give  us  time.  It  is  only  a  few  years  since  we 
began  to  educate  the  people. 

ThEO.  And  what,  pray,  has  your  Christian  religion  been  doing 
ever  since  the  fifteenth  century,  once  you  acknowledge  that 
the  education  of  the  masses  has  not  been  attempted  till  now 
—  the  very  work,  if  ever  there  could  be  one,  which  a  Christ- 
ian—  i.e.,  a  Christ-following  —  church  and  people  ought  to 
perform? 

Inq.     Well,  you  may  be  right ;  but  now  — 

Theo.  Just  let  us  consider  this  question  of  education  from  a 
broad  standpoint,  and  I  will  prove  to  you  that  you  are  doing 
harm,  not  good,  with  many  of  your  boasted  improvements. 
The  schools  for  the  poorer  children,  though  far  less  useful 
than  they  ought  to  be,  are  good  in  contrast  with  the  vile  sur- 
roundings to  which  they  are  doomed  by  your  modern  society. 
The  infusion  of  a  little  practical  Theosophy  would  help  a 
hundred  times  more  in  life  the  poor  suffering  masses  than 
all  this  diffusion  of  (useless)  intelligence. 

Inq.     But  really  — 

ThEO.  Let  me  finish,  please.  You  have  opened  a  subject  on 
which  we  Theosophists  feel  deeply,  and  I  must  have  my  say. 
I  quite  agree  that  there  is  a  great  advantage  to  a  small  child 
bred  in  the  slums,  having  the  gutter  for  play-ground,  and  liv- 
mg  amid  continued  coarseness  of  gesture  and  word,  in  being 
placed  daily  in  a  bright,  clean  school-room  hung  with  pictures, 
and  often  gay  with  flowers.    There  it  is  taught  to  be  clean, 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  261 

gentle,  orderly ;  there  it  learns  to  sing  and  to  play ;  has  toys 
that  awaken  its  intelligence;  learns  to  use  its  fingers  deftly; 
is  spoken  to  with  a  smile  instead  of  a  frown ;  is  gently  rebuked 
or  coaxed  instead  of  cursed.  All  this  humanizes  the  children, 
arouses  their  brains,  and  renders  them  susceptible  to  intel- 
lectual and  moral  influences.  The  schools  are  not  all  they 
might  be  and  ought  to  be ;  but  compared  with  the  homes  they 
are  paradises;  and  they  are  slowly  reacting  on  the  homes. 
But  while  this  is  true  of  many  of  the  board-schools,  your 
system  deserves  the  worst  one  can  say  of  it. 

Inq.     So  be  it ;  go  on. 

ThEo.  What  is  the  real  object  of  modern  education?  Is  it  to 
cultivate  and  develop  the  mind  in  the  right  direction ;  to  teach 
the  disinherited  and  hapless  people  to  carry  with  fortitude 
the  burden  of  life  (allotted  them  by  Karma) ;  to  strengthen 
their  will ;  to  inculcate  in  them  the  love  of  one's  neighbor  and 
the  feeling  of  mutual  interdependence  and  brotherhood ;  and 
thus  to  train  and  form  the  character  for  practical  life?  Not 
a  bit  of  it.  And  yet  these  are  undeniably  the  objects  of  all 
true  education.  No  one  denies  it;  all  your  educationalists 
admit  it,  and  talk  very  big  indeed  on  the  subject.  But  what 
is  the  practical  result  of  their  action  ?  Every  young  man  and 
boy  —  nay,  every  one  of  the  younger  generation  of  school- 
masters —  will  answer,  "  The  object  of  modern  education  is 
to  pass  examinations  "  —  a  system  not  to  develop  right  emu- 
lation, but  to  generate  and  breed  jealousy,  envy,  hatred  al- 
most, in  young  people  for  one  another,  and  thus  train  them 
for  a  life  of  ferocious  selfishness  and  struggle  for  honors 
and  emoluments  instead  of  kindly  feeling. 

Inq.     I  must  admit  you  are  right  there. 


262  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

ThEo.  And  what  are  these  examinations  —  the  terror  of  modern 
boyhood  and  youth?  They  are  simply  a  method  of  classifi- 
cation by  which  the  results  of  your  school-teaching  are  tabu- 
lated. In  other  words,  they  form  the  practical  application 
of  the  modern  science  method  to  the  genus  homo,  qua  intel- 
lection. Now  "science"  teaches  that  intellect  is  a  result  of  the 
mechanical  interaction  of  the  brain-stuff;  therefore  it  is  only 
logical  that  modern  education  should  be  almost  entirely  mech- 
anical—  a  sort  of  automatic  machine  for  the  fabrication  of 
intellect  by  the  ton.  Very  little  experience  of  examinations 
is  enough  to  show  that  the  education  they  produce  is  simply 
a  training  of  the  physical  memory,  and,  sooner  or  later,  all 
your  schools  will  sink  to  this  level.  As  to  any  real,  sound 
cultivation  of  the  thinking  and  reasoning  power,  it  is  simply 
impossible  while  everything  has  to  be  judged  by  the  results 
as  tested  by  competitive  examinations.  Again,  school  train- 
ing is  of  the  very  greatest  importance  in  forming  character, 
especially  in  its  moral  bearing.  Now,  from  first  to  last,  your 
modern  system  is  based  on  the  so-called  scientific  revelations 
—  the  "struggle  for  existence"  and  the  "survival  of  the  fit- 
test." All  through  his  early  life  every  man  has  these  driven 
into  him  by  practical  example  and  experience,  as  well  as  by 
direct  teaching,  till  it  is  impossible  to  eradicate  from  his  mind 
the  idea  that  "  self  "  —  the  lower,  personal,  animal  self  —  is 
the  end-all  and  be-all  of  life.  Here  you  get  the  great  source 
of  all  the  after-misery,  crime,  and  heartless  selfishness,  which 
you  admit  as  much  as  I  do.  Selfishness,  as  said  over  and  over 
again,  is  the  curse  of  humanity,  and  the  prolific  parent  of  all 
the  evils  and  crimes  in  this  life ;  and  it  is  your  schools  which 
are  the  hotbeds  of  such  selfishness. 


THE    KBY    To    THEOSOPHV  263 

Inq.  That  is  all  very  fine  as  generalities,  but  I  should  like  a  few  facts,  and 
to  learn  also,  how  all  this  can  be  remedied. 

TheIo.  Very  well,  I  will  try  and  satisfy  you.  There  are  three 
great  divisions  of  scholastic  establishments  —  board,  middle- 
class,  and  public  schools,  running  up  the  scale  from  the  most 
grossly  commercial  to  the  idealistic  classical,  with  many  per- 
mutations and  combinations.  The  practical  commercial  be- 
gets the  modern  side,  and  the  ancient  and  orthodox  classical 
reflects  its  heavy  respectability  even  as  far  as  the  school- 
board  pupil-teacher's  establishments.  Here  we  plainly  see 
the  scientific  and  material  commercial  supplanting  the  effete 
orthodox  and  classical.  Neither  is  the  reason  very  far  to  seek. 
The  objects  of  this  branch  of  education  are,  then,  pounds, 
shillings,  and  pence,  the  sumuium  bomtui  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Thus  the  energies  generated  by  the  brain-molecules 
of  its  adherents  are  all  concentrated  on  one  point,  and  are 
therefore,  to  some  extent,  an  organized  army  of  educated 
and  speculative  intellects  of  the  minority  of  men,  trained 
against  the  hosts  of  the  ignorant,  simple-minded  masses 
doomed  to  be  vampirized,  lived  and  sat  upon  by  their  intellect- 
ually stronger  brethren.  Such  training  is  not  only  untheo- 
sophical;  it  is  simply  unchristian.  Result:  the  direct  outcome 
of  this  branch  of  education  is  an  overflooding  of  the  market 
with  money-making  machines,  with  heartless,  selfish  men  — 
animals  —  who  have  been  most  carefully  trained  to  prey  on 
their  fellows  and  take  advantage  of  the  ignorance  of  their 
weaker  brethren! 

Inq.  Well,  but  you  cannot  assert  that  of  our  great  public  schools,  at 
any  rate. 


264  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Theo.  Not  exactly,  it  is  true.  But  though  the  form  is  different, 
the  animating  spirit  is  the  same — untheosophical  and  un- 
christian, whether  Eton  and  Harrow  turn  out  scientists  or 
divines  and  theologians. 

Inq.     Surely  you  do  not  mean  to  call  Eton  and  Harrow  "commercial"  ? 

Theo.  No.  Of  course  the  Classical  system  is  above  all  things 
respectable,  and  in  the  present  day  is  productive  of  some  good. 
It  still  remains  the  favorite  at  our  great  public  schools,  where 
not  only  an  intellectual,  but  also  a  social  education  is  obtain- 
able. It  is  therefore  of  prime  importance  that  the  dull  boys 
of  aristocratic  and  wealthy  parents  should  go  to  such  schools 
to  meet  the  rest  of  the  young  life  of  the  "  blood  "  and  money 
classes.  But,  unfortunately,  there  is  a  huge  competition 
even  for  entrance;  for  the  moneyed  classes  are  increasing, 
and  poor  but  clever  boys  seek  to  enter  the  public  schools  by 
the  rich  scholarships,  both  at  the  schools  themselves  and  from 
them  to  the  universities. 

Inq.  According  to  this  view,  the  wealthier  "dullards"  have  to  work  even 
harder  than  their  poorer  fellows. 

Theo.  It  is  so.  But,  strange  to  say,  the  faithful  of  the  cult  of 
the  ''survival  of  the  fittest"  do  not  practise  their  creed;  for 
their  whole  exertion  is  to  make  the  naturally  unfit  supplant 
the  fit.  Thus,  by  bribes  of  large  sums  of  money,  they  allure 
the  best  teachers  from  their  natural  pupils  to  mechanicalize 
their  naturally  unfit  progeny  into  professions  which  they 
uselessly  overcrowd. 

Inq.     And  you  attribute  all  this  to  what? 


THE   KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  265 

Theo.  All  this  is  owing  to  the  perniciousness  of  a  system  which 
turns  out  goods  to  order,  irrespective  of  the  natural  procliv- 
ities and  talents  of  the  youth.  The  poor  little  candidate  for 
this  progressive  paradise  of  learning  comes  almost  straight 
from  the  nursery  to  the  treadmill  of  a  preparatory  school 
for  sons  of  gentlemen.  Here  he  is  immediately  seized  upon 
by  the  workmen  of  the  materio-intellectual  factory,  and 
crammed  with  Latin,  French,  and  Greek  Accidence,  Dates 
and  Tables,  so  that  if  he  have  any  natural  genius  it  is  rapidly 
squeezed  out  of  him  by  the  rollers  of  what  Carlyle  has  so 
well  called  "  dead  vocables." 

Inq.  But  surely  he  is  taught  something  besides  "dead  vocables,"  and  much 
of  that  which  may  lead  him  direct  to  Theosophy,  if  not  entirely  into 
the  Theosophical  Society? 

Theo.  Not  much.  For  of  history  he  will  attain  only  sufficient 
knowledge  of  his  own  particular  nation  to  fit  him  with  a 
steel  armor  of  prejudice  against  all  other  peoples,  and  be 
steeped  in  the  foul  cesspools  of  chronicled  national  hate  and 
bloodthirstiness ;  and  surely  you  would  not  call  that  —  Tlico- 
sophy? 

Inq.     What  are  your  further  objections? 

Theo.  Added  to  this  is  a  smattering  of  selected,  so-called 
biblical  facts,  from  the  study  of  which  all  intellect  is  elim- 
inated. It  is  simply  a  memory  lesson,  the  Why  of  the 
teacher  being  a  Why  of  circumstances  and  not  of  reason. 

Inq.  Yes ;  but  I  have  heard  you  congratulate  yourself  at  the  ever-increas- 
ing number  of  Agnostics  and  Atheists  in  our  day,  so  that  it  appears 


266  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

that  even  people  trained  in  the  system  you  abuse  so  heartily  do  learn 
to  think  and  reason  for  themselves. 

Theo.  Yes;  but  it  is  rather  owing  to  a  healthy  reaction  from 
that  system  than  due  to  it.  We  immeasurably  prefer  agnos- 
tics, and  even  rank  atheists,  in  our  Society  to  bigots  of  what- 
ever religion.  An  agnostic's  mind  is  ever  opened  to  the  truth ; 
whereas  the  latter  blinds  the  bigot  like  the  sun  does  an  owl. 
The  best  —  i.  e.,  the  most  truth-loving,  philanthropic,  and 
honest  —  of  our  Fellows  were,  and  are,  agnostics  and  atheists, 
in  the  sense  of  disbelievers  in  a  personal  God.  But  there  are 
no  free-ih.m\dng  boys  and  girls,  and  generally  early  training 
will  leave  its  mark  behind  in  the  shape  of  a  cramped  and  dis- 
torted mind.  A  proper  and  sane  system  of  education  should 
produce  the  most  vigorous  and  liberal  mind,  strictly  trained 
in  logical  and  accurate  thought,  and  not  in  blind  faith.  How 
can  you  ever  expect  good  results  while  you  pervert  the  reason- 
ing faculty  of  your  children  by  bidding  them  believe  in  the 
miracles  of  the  Bible  on  Sunday,  while  for  the  six  other  days 
of  the  week  you  teach  them  that  such  things  are  scientifically 
impossible  ? 

Inq.     What  would  you  have,  then? 

Theo.  If  we  had  money  we  would  found  schools  which  would 
turn  out  something  else  than  reading  and  writing  candidates 
for  starvation.  Children  should  above  all  be  taught  self- 
reliance,  love  for  all  men,  altruism,  mutual  charity,  and,  more 
than  anything  else,  to  think  and  reason  for  themselves.  We 
would  reduce  the  purely  mechanical  work  of  the  memory 
to  an  absolute  minimum,  and  devote  the  time  to  the  develop- 
ment and  training  of  the  inner  senses,  faculties,  and  latent 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  m 

capacities.  We  would  endeavor  to  deal  with  each  child  as  a 
unit,  and  to  educate  it  so  as  to  produce  the  most  harmonious 
and  equal  unfoldment  of  its  powers,  in  order  that  its  special 
aptitudes  should  find  their  full  natural  development.  We 
would  aim  at  creating  free  men  and  women  —  free  intel- 
lectually, free  morally;  unprejudiced  in  all  respects  and  above 
all  things,  unselfish.  And  we  believe  that  much,  if  not  all, 
of  this  could  be  obtained  by  proper  and  truly  Theosophical 
education. 


IVHY,  THEN,  IS  THERE  SO  MUCH  PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE 

THEOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY  ? 

Inq,  If  Theosophy  is  even  half  of  what  you  say,  why  should  there  exist 
such  a  terrible  ill-feeling  against  it?  This  is  even  more  of  a  problem 
than  anything  else. 

The;o.  It  is ;  but  you  must  bear  in  mind  how  many  powerful  ad- 
versaries we  have  aroused  ever  since  the  formation  of  our 
Society.  As  I  just  said,  if  the  Theosophical  movement  were 
one  of  those  numerous  modern  crazes,  as  harmless  at  the  end 
as  they  are  evanescent,  it  would  be  simply  laughed  at  —  as 
it  is  now  by  those  who  still  do  not  understand  its  real  purport 
—  and  left  severely  alone.  But  it  is  nothing  of  the  kind. 
Intrinsically,  Theosophy  is  the  most  serious  movement  of  this 
age,  and  one,  moreover,  which  threatens  the  very  life  of  most 
of  the  time-honored  humbugs,  prejudices,  and  social  evils 
of  the  day  —  those  evils  which  fatten  and  make  happy  the 
upper  ten  and  their  imitators  and  sycophants,  the  wealthy 
dozens  of  the  middle  classes,  while  they  positively  crush  and 


268.  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

starve  out  of  existence  the  millions  of  the  poor.  Think  of 
this,  and  you  will  easily  understand  the  reason  of  such  a  re- 
lentless persecution  by  those  others  who,  more  observing  and 
perspicacious,  do  see  the  true  nature  of  Theosophy,  and  there- 
fore dread  it. 

Inq.  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  it  is  because  a  few  have  understood  what 
Theosophy  leads  to,  that  they  try  to  crush  the  movement?  But  if 
Theosophy  leads  only  to  good,  surely  you  cannot  be  prepared  to  utter 
such  a  terrible  accusation  of  perfidious  heartlessness  and  treachery 
even   against  those   few? 

Theo.  I  am  so  prepared,  on  the  contrary.  I  do  not  call  the 
enemies  we  have  had  to  battle  with  during  the  first  nine  or 
ten  years  of  the  Society's  existence  either  powerful  or  "dan- 
gerous," but  only  those  who  have  arisen  against  us  in  the  last 
three  or  four  years.  And  these  neither  speak,  write,  nor 
preach  against  Theosophy,  but  work  in  silence  and  behind 
the  backs  of  the  foolish  puppets  who  act  as  their  visible 
marionettes.  Yet,  if  invisible  to  most  of  the  members  of  our 
Society,  they  are  well-known  to  the  true  FOUNDERS  and 
the  PROTECTORS  of  our  Society.  But  they  must  remain, 
for  certain  reasons,  unnamed  at  present. 

Inq.     And  are  they  known  to  many  of  you,  or  to  yourself  alone? 

TiiKo.  I  never  said  that  /  knew  them;  I  may  or  may  not  know 
them;  but  I  know  of  them,  and  this  is  sufficient;  and  /  defy 
them  to  do  their  zvorst.  They  may  achieve  great  mischief 
and  throw  confusion  into  our  ranks,  especially  among  the 
faint-hearted  and  those  who  can  judge  only  by  appearances. 
They  will  not  crush  the  Society,  do  what  they  may.  Apart 
from  these  truly  dangerous  enemies  —  dangerous,  however, 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  269 

only  to  those  Theosophists  who  are  unworthy  of  the  name, 
and  whose  place  is  rather  outside  than  ivithin  the  Theosoph- 
ical  Society  —  the  number  of  our  opponents  is  more  than 
considerable. 

Inq.  Cannot  you  give  me  more  details  about  these  latter,  so  that  I  may 
know  what  to  answer  when  asked  —  a  brief  history  of  the  Society,  in 
short;  and  why  the  world  beHeves  all  this? 

Thko.  The  reason  is  simple.  Most  outsiders  know  absolutely 
nothing  of  the  Society  itself,  its  motives,  objects  or  beliefs. 
From  its  very  beginning  the  world  has  seen  in  Theosophy 
nothing  but  certain  marvelous  phenomena,  in  which  two- 
thirds  of  the  non-spiritualists  do  not  believe.  Very  soon  the 
Society  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  body  pretending  to  the  pos- 
session of  "miraculous"  powers.  The  world  never  realized 
that  the  Society  taught  absolute  disbelief  in  miracle  or  even 
the  possibility  of  such. 

Inq.     For  what,  and  since  when,  do  the  Spiritualists  hate  you? 

Thdo.  From  the  first  day  of  the  Society's  existence.  No  sooner 
the  fact  became  known  that,  as  a  body,  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety did  not  believe  in  communications  with  the  spirits  of  the 
dead,  but  regarded  the  so-called  "spirits"  as,  for  the  most 
part,  astral  reflections  of  disembodied  personalities,  shells, 
etc.,  than  the  Spiritualists  conceived  a  violent  hatred  to  us  and 
especially  to  the  Founders.  This  hatred  found  expression 
in  every  kind  of  slander,  uncharitable  personal  remarks  and 
absurd  misrepresentations  of  the  Theosophical  Teachings 
in  all  the  American  Spiritualistic  organs.  For  years  we 
were  persecuted,  denounced  and  abused.  This  began  in 
1875  and  continues  more  or  less  to  the  present  day. 


270  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

Inq.  But  why  should  the  clergy  be  hostile  to  you,  when,  after  all,  the  main 
tendency  of  the  Theosophical  doctines  is  opposed  to  Materialism,  the 
great  enemy  of  all  forms  of  religion  in  our  day? 

Theo.  The  clergy  opposed  us  on  the  general  principle  that  "  He 
who  is  not  with  me  is  against  me."  Since  Theosophy  does 
not  agree  with  any  one  Sect  or  Creed,  it  is  considered  the 
enemy  of  all  alike,  because  it  teaches  that  they  are  all,  more  or 
less,  mistaken.  The  missionaries  in  India  hated  and  tried  to 
crush  us  because  they  saw  the  flower  of  the  educated  Indian 
youth,  who  are  almost  inaccessible  to  them,  joining  the  So- 
ciety in  large  numbers.  And  yet,  apart  from  this  general 
class  hatred,  the  Theosophical  Society  counts  in  its  ranks 
many  clergymen,  and  even  one  or  two  bishops. 

Inq.    And  what  led  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  to  take  the  field 

against  you?     You  were  both  pursuing  the   same  line  of   study,  in 

some  respects,  and  several  of  the   Psychic  Researchers  belonged  to 
your  Society. 

Theo.  First  of  all  we  were  very  good  friends  with  the  leaders  of 
the  S.  P.  R. ;  but  when  the  attack  on  the  phenomena  appeared 
in  the  Christian  College  Magazine,  supported  by  the  pretend- 
ed revelations  of  a  menial,  the  S.  P.  R.  found  that  they  had 
compromised  themselves  by  publishing  in  their  "  Proceed- 
ings "  too  many  facts  which  had  occurred  in  connection  with 
the  Theosophical  Society.  Their  ambition  is  to  pose  as  an 
authoritatii'c  and  strictly  scientific  body;  so  that  they  had  to 
choose  between  retaining  that  position  by  throwing  overboard 
the  Theosophical  Society  and  even  trying  to  destroy  it,  and 
seeing  themselves  merged,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Sadducees  of 
the  grand  monde,  with  the  "credulous"  Theosophists  and 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  271 

Spiritualists.  There  was  no  way  for  them  out  of  it,  no  two 
choices,  and  they  chose  to  throw  us  overboard.  It  was  a  mat- 
ter of  dire  necessity  for  them.  But  so  hard  pressed  were  they 
to  find  any  apparently  reasonable  motive  for  the  life  of  devo- 
tion and  ceaseless  labor  led  by  the  Founder,  and  for  the  com- 
plete absence  of  any  pecuniary  profit  or  other  advantage  to 
her,  that  our  enemies  were  obliged  to  resort  to  the  thrice- 
absurd,  eminently  ridiculous,  and  now  famous  "  Russian  spy 
theory,"  to  explain  this  devotion.  But  the  old  saying,  "  The 
blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church,"  proved  once 
more  correct.  After  the  first  shock  of  this  attack,  the  Theo- 
sophical  Society  doubled  and  tripled  its  numbers,  but  the 
bad  impression  produced  still  remains.  A  French  author  was 
right  in  saying,  "  Calomniez,  calomniez  toujours  et  encore, 
il  en  restera  toujours  quelque  chose."  Therefore  it  is,  that 
unjust  prejudices  are  current,  and  that  everything  connected 
with  the  Theosophical  Society,  and  especially  with  H.  P. 
Blavatsky,  its  Founder,  is  so  falsely  distorted,  because  based 
on  malicious  hearsay  alone. 

Inq.  Yet  in  the  14  years  [this  was  written  in  1889]  during  which  the 
Society  has  existed,  you  must  have  had  ample  time  and  opportunity 
to  show  yourself  and  your  work  in  their  true  light? 

ThEo.  How,  or  when,  have  we  been  given  such  an  opportunity? 
Our  most  prominent  members  had  an  aversion  to  anything 
that  looked  like  publicly  justifying  themselves.  Their  policy 
has  ever  been :  "  We  must  live  it  down ;"  and  "  What  does  it 
matter  what  the  newspapers  say,  or  people  think  ?  "  The  So- 
ciety was  too  poor  to  send  out  public  lecturers,  and  therefore 
the  expositions  of  our  views  and  doctrines  were  confined  to 


272  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

a  few  Theosophical  works  that  met  with  success,  but  which 
people  often  misunderstood,  or  only  knew  of  through  hear- 
say. Our  journals  were,  and  still  are,  boycotted ;  our  literary 
works  ignored;  and  to  this  day  [1889]  no  one  seems  even  to 
feel  quite  certain  whether  the  Theosophists  are  a  kind  of  Ser- 
pent-and-Devil  worshippers,  or  simply  "  Esoteric  Buddhists  " 
—  whatever  that  may  mean.  It  was  useless  for  us  to  go  on 
denying,  day  after  day  and  year  after  year,  every  kind  of  in- 
conceivable cock-and-bull  stories  about  us ;  for,  no  sooner  was 
one  disposed  of,  than  another,  a  still  more  absurd  and  mal- 
icious one,  was  born  out  of  the  ashes  of  the  first.  Unfortun- 
ately, human  nature  is  so  constituted  that  any  good  said  of  a 
person  is  immediately  forgotten  and  never  repeated.  But 
one  has  only  to  utter  a  calumny,  or  to  start  a  story  —  no 
matter  how  absurd,  false  or  incredible  it  may  be,  if  only  con- 
nected with  some  unpopular  character  —  for  it  to  be  success- 
ful and  forthwith  accepted  as  a  historical  fact.  Like  Don 
Basilio's  "Calumnia/"  the  rumor  springs  up,  at  first,  as  a 
soft  gentle  breeze  hardly  stirring  the  grass  under  your  feet, 
and  arising  no  one  knows  whence ;  then,  in  the  shortest  space 
of  time,  it  is  transformed  into  a  strong  wind,  begins  to  blow 
a  gale,  and  forthwith  becomes  a  roaring  storm !  A  calumny 
among  news  is  what  an  octopus  is  among  fishes ;  it  sucks  into 
one's  mind,  fastens  upon  our  memory,  which  feeds  upon  it, 
leaving  indelible  marks  even  after  the  calumny  has  been  bodily 
destroyed.  A  calumnious  lie  is  the  only  masterkey  that  will 
open  any  and  every  brain.  It  is  sure  to  receive  welcome  and 
hospitality  in  every  human  mind,  the  highest  as  the  lowest, 
if  only  a  little  prejudiced,  and  no  matter  from  however  base 
a  quarter  and  motive  it  has  started. 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  273 

Inq.  Don't  you  think  your  assertion  altogether  too  sweeping?  The  Eng- 
Hshman  has  never  been  over-ready  to  beheve  in  anything  said,  and 
our  nation  is  proverbially  known  for  its  love  of  fair  play.  A  lie  has 
no  legs  to  stand  upon  for  long,  and  — 

ThEo.  The  Englishman  is  as  ready  to  beheve  evil  as  a  man  of 
any  other  nation;  for  it  is  human  nature,  and  not  a  national 
feature.  As  to  lies,  if  they  have  no  legs  to  stand  upon,  ac- 
cording to  the  proverb,  they  have  exceedingly  rapid  wings; 
and  they  can  and  do  fly  farther  and  wider  than  any  other 
kind  of  news,  in  England  as  elsewhere.  Remember  lies  and 
calumny  are  the  only  kind  of  literature  we  can  always  get 
gratis,  and  without  paying  any  subscription.  We  can  make 
the  experiment  if  you  like.  Will  you,  who  are  so  interested 
in  Theosophical  matters,  and  have  heard  so  much  about  us, 
will  you  put  me  questions  on  as  many  of  these  rumors  and 
"  hearsays  "  as  you  can  think  of  ?  I  will  answer  you  the  truth, 
and  nothing  but  the  truth,  subject  to  the  strictest  verification. 

Inq.  Before  we  change  the  subject,  let  us  have  the  whole  truth  on  this 
one.  Now,  some  writers  have  called  your  teachings  "immoral  and 
pernicious ;"  others,  on  the  ground  that  many  so-called  "authorities" 
and  Orientalists  find  in  the  Indian  religions  nothing  but  sex-worship 
in  its  many  forms,  accuse  you  of  teaching  nothing  better  than  Phallic 
worship.  They  say  that  since  modern  Theosophy  is  so  closely  allied 
with  Eastern  thought,  it  cannot  be  free  from  this  taint.  Occasionally, 
even,  they  go  so  far  as  to  accuse  European  Theosophists  of  reviving 
the  practices  connected  with  this  cult.     How  about  this? 

Theo.  I  have  heard  and  read  about  this  before;  and  I  answer 
that  no  more  utterly  baseless  and  lying  calumny  has  ever  been 
invented  and  circulated.  "  Silly  people  can  see  but  silly 
dreams,"  says  a  Russian  proverb.  It  makes  one's  blood  boil 
to  hear  such  vile  accusations  made  without  the  slightest  foun- 


274  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

dation,  and  on  the  strength  of  mere  inferences.  Ask  the 
hundreds  of  honorable  men  and  women  who  have  been  mem- 
bers of  the  Theosophical  Society  for  years  whether  an  im- 
moral precept  or  a  pernicious  doctrine  was  ever  taught  to 
them.  Open  The  Secret  Doctrine,  and  you  will  find  page 
after  page  denouncing  those  who  adopt  Phallic  rites,  due  to 
the  dead  letter  interpretation  of  nature  symbolism,  and  the 
grossly  materialistic  conceptions  of  her  dualism  in  all  the 
exoteric  creeds.  Such  ceaseless  and  malicious  misrepresent- 
ation of  our  teachings  and  beliefs  is  really  disgraceful. 

Inq.  But  you  cannot  deny  that  the  Phallic  element  does  exist  in  the  relig- 
ions of  the  East? 

Theo.  Nor  do  I  deny  it;  only  I  maintain  that  this  proves  no 
more  than  does  its  presence  in  Christianity,  the  religion  of  the 
West.  Read  Hargrave  Jennings'  Rosicrucians,  if  you  would 
assure  yourself  of  it.  In  the  East,  the  Phallic  symbolism  is, 
perhaps,  more  crude,  because  more  true  to  nature,  or,  I  would 
rather  say,  more  ndive  and  sincere  than  in  the  West.  But  it 
is  not  more  licentious,  nor  does  it  suggest  to  the  Oriental  mind 
the  same  gross  and  coarse  ideas  as  to  the  Western,  with 
perhaps,  one  or  two  exceptions,  such  as  the  shameful  sect 
known  as  the  "  Maharaja,"  or  Vallahacharya  sect. 

Inq.  a  writer  in  the  Agnostic  Journal  —  one  of  your  accusers  —  has  just 
hinted  that  the  followers  of  this  disgraceful  sect  are  Theosophists, 
and  "  claim  true  Theosophic  insight." 

Theo.  He  wrote  a  falsehood,  and  that's  all.  There  never  was, 
nor  is  there  at  present,  one  single  Vallahacharya  in  our 
Society.  As  to  their  having,  or  claiming  Theosophic  insight, 
that  is  another  fib,  based  on  crass  ignorance  about  the  Indian 
Sects.     Their  "  Maharaja  "  only  claims  a  right  to  the  money, 


THE   KHY    TO    THEOSOPHY  275 

wives  and  daughters  of  his  foohsh  followers  and  no  more. 
This  sect  is  despised  by  all  the  other  Hindiis. 

But  you  will  find  the  whole  subject  dealt  with  at  length  in 
The  Secret  Doctrine,  to  which  I  must  again  refer  you  for 
detailed  explanations.  To  conclude,  the  very  soul  of  Theo- 
sophy  is  dead  against  Phallic  worship;  and  its  occult  or  eso- 
teric section  even  more  so  than  the  exoteric  teachings.  There 
never  was  a  more  lying  statement  made  than  the  above.  And 
now  ask  me  some  other  questions. 

Inq.  I  have  heard  many  Theosophists  speak  of  a  "  power  behind  the  So- 
ciety," and  of  certain  "  Mahatmas,"  that  are  said  to  have  founded  the 
Society,  to  watch  over  and  protect  it. 

Theo.     You  may  laugh,  but  it  is  so. 

Inq.  These  men,  I  have  heard,  are  great  Adepts,  Alchemists,  and  what  not. 
If,  then,  they  can  change  lead  into  gold  and  make  as  much  money  as 
they  like,  besides  doing  all  kinds  of  miracles  at  will,  why  do  not  they 
find  you  money,  and  support  the  Founders  and  the  Society  in  comfort? 

Theo.  Because  they  did  not  found  a  "  miracle  club."  Because 
the  Society  is  intended  to  help  men  to  develop  the  powers  lat- 
ent in  them  through  their  own  exertions  and  merit.  Because 
whatever  they  may  or  may  not  produce  in  the  way  of  pheno- 
mena, they  are  not  false  coiners;  nor  would  they  throw  an 
additional  and  very  strong  temptation  on  the  path  of  mem- 
bers and  candidates:  TJieosophy  is  not  to  be  bought.  Hith- 
erto, not  a  single  working  member  has  ever  received  pay  or 
salary  from  either  the  Masters  or  the  Society. 

Inq.  And  now  please  tell  me  all  you  can  about  the  Mahatmas.  So  many  ab- 
surd and  contradictory  things  are  said  about  them,  that  one  does  not 
know  what  to  believe,  and  all  sorts  of  ridiculous  stories  become  current. 

Theo.     Well  may  you  call  them  "  ridiculous!  " 


276  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV 


XIV 

THE  THEOSOPHICAL  "  MAHATMAS  " 


ARE  THEY  "SPIRITS  OF  LIGHT"  OR  "GOBLINS  DAMN'D"  ? 

Inq.  Who  are,  then,  those  whom  you  call  your  "  Masters  "  ?  Some  say 
they  are  "  Spirits,"  or  some  other  kind  of  supernatural  beings,  while 
others  call  them  "myths." 

ThEo.  They  are  neither.  I  once  heard  one  outsider  say  to  an- 
other that  they  were  a  sort  of  male  mermaids,  whatever  such 
a  creature  may  be.  But  if  you  Hsten  to  what  people  say  you 
will  never  have  a  true  conception  of  them.  In  the  first  place, 
they  are  living  men,  born  as  we  are  born,  and  doomed  to  die 
like  every  other  mortal. 

Inq.  Yes,  but  it  is  rumored  that  some  of  them  are  a  thousand  years  old. 
Is  this  true? 

Thko.  As  true  as  the  miraculous  growth  of  hair  on  the  head  of 
Meredith's  Shagpat.  Truly,  like  the  "  Identical,"  no  Theo- 
sophical  shaving  has  hitherto  been  able  to  crop  it.  The  more 
we  deny  them,  the  more  we  try  to  set  people  right,  the  more 
absurd  do  the  inventions  become.  I  have  heard  of  Methu- 
selah being  969  years  old;  but,  not  being  forced  to  believe 
in  it,  have  laughed  at  the  statement,  for  which  I  was  forth- 
with regarded  by  many  as  a  blasphemous  heretic. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  277 

Inq.     Seriously,  though,  do  they  outHve  the  ordinary  age  of  men? 

The;o.  What  do  you  call  the  ordinary  age?  I  remember  read- 
ing in  the  Lancet  of  a  Mexican  who  was  almost  190  years 
old ;  but  I  have  never  heard  of  mortal  man,  layman  or  Adept, 
who  could  live  even  half  the  years  allotted  to  Methuselah. 
Some  Adepts  do  exceed,  by  a  good  deal,  what  you  would  call 
the  ordinary  age;  yet  there  is  nothing  miraculous  in  it,  and 
very  few  of  them  care  to  live  very  long. 

Inq.     But  what  does  the  word  "  Mahatma  "  really  mean  ? 

ThDo.  Simply  "  great  soul  "  —  great  through  moral  elevation 
and  intellectual  attainment.  If  the  title  of  ''  great "  is  given 
to  a  drunken  soldier  like  Alexander,  why  should  we  not  call 
those  "  Great "  who  have  achieved  far  greater  conquests  in 
Nature's  secrets  than  Alexander  ever  did  on  the  field  of 
battle?    Besides,  the  term  is  an  Indian  and  a  very  old  word. 

Inq.     And  why  do  you  call  them  "  Masters  "  ? 

The:o.  We  call  them  "  Masters  "  because  they  are  our  teachers, 
and  because  from  them  we  have  derived  all  the  Theosophical 
truths,  however  inadequately  some  of  us  may  have  expressed, 
and  others  understood  them.  They  are  men  of  great  learning 
and  still  greater  holiness  of  life,  whom  we  term  Initiates. 
They  are  not  ascetics  in  the  ordinary  sense,  though  they  cer- 
tainly remain  apart  from  the  turmoil  and  strife  of  your 
Western  world. 

Inq.     But  is  it  not  selfish  thus  to  isolate  themselves? 

Theo.  Where  is  the  selfishness?  Does  not  the  fate  of  the 
Theosophical  Society  sufficiently  prove  that  the  world  is 
neither  ready  to  recognize  them  nor  to  profit  by  their  teach- 


278  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

ing?  Of  what  use  would  Professor  Clerk  Maxwell  have 
been  to  instruct  a  class  of  little  boys  in  their  multiplication 
table?  Besides,  they  isolate  themselves  only  from  the  West. 
In  their  own  country  they  go  about  as  publicly  as  other 
people  do. 

Inq.     Don't  you  ascribe  to  them  supernatural  powers? 

ThEo.  We  believe  in  nothing  supernatural,  as  I  have  told  you 
already.  Had  Edison  lived  and  invented  his  phonograph 
two  hundred  years  ago  he  would  most  probably  have  been 
burned  along  with  it,  and  the  whole  attributed  to  the  devil. 
The  powers  which  they  exercise  are  simply  the  development 
of  potencies  lying  latent  in  every  man  and  woman,  and  the 
existence  of  which  even  official  science  begins  to  recognize. 

Inq.  Is  it  true  that  these  men  inspire  some  of  your  writers,  and  that  many, 
if  not  all,  of  your  Theosophical  works  were  written  under  their 
dictation  ? 

Theo.  Some  of  them  have  done  so.  There  are  passages  en- 
tirely dictated  by  them  verbatim ;  but  in  most  cases  they  only 
inspire  the  ideas,  and  leave  the  literary  form  to  the  writers. 

Inq.  But  this  in  itself  is  miraculous ;  is,  in  fact,  a  miracle.  How  can  they 
do  it? 

Theo.  My  dear  sir,  you  are  laboring  under  a  great  mistake,  and 
it  is  science  itself  that  will  refute  your  arguments  at  no  dis- 
tant day.  Why  should  it  be  a  "miracle,"  as  you  call  it?  A 
miracle  is  supposed  to  be  some  operation  which  is  supernat- 
ural, whereas  there  is  really  nothing  above  or  beyond  Nature 
and  Nature's  laws.  Among  the  many  forms  of  the  "miracle" 
which  have  come  under  modern  scientific  recognition  there  is 


THE    KEY    TO    TH^OSOPHY  in 

hypnotism  ;^^  and  one  phase  of  its  power  is  known  as  "sugges- 
tion," a  form  of  thought  transference,  which  has  been  suc- 
cessfully used  in  combating  particular  physical  diseases,  etc. 
The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  World  of  Science  will 
be  forced  to  acknowledge  that  there  exists  as  much  inter- 
action between  one  mind  and  another,  no  matter  at  what 
distance,  as  between  one  body  and  another  in  closest  contact. 
When  two  minds  are  sympathetically  related,  and  the  instru- 
ments through  which  they  function  are  tuned  to  respond  mag- 
netically and  electrically  to  one  another,  there  is  nothing 
which  will  prevent  the  transmission  of  thoughts  from  one 
to  the  other  at  will ;  for  since  the  mind  is  not  of  such  a  tan- 
gible nature  that  distance  can  divide  it  from  the  subject  of  its 
contemplation,  it  follows  that  the  only  difference  that  can 
exist  between  two  minds  is  a  difference  of  state.  So  if 
this  latter  hindrance  is  overcome,  where  is  the  ''miracle"  of 
tJiought-fransference,  at  whatever  distance? 

Inq.  But  you  will  admit  that  hypnotism  does  nothing  so  miraculous  or 
wonderful  as  that? 

Theo.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  well-established  fact  that  a  hyp- 
notist can  affect  the  brain  of  his  subject  so  far  as  to  produce 
an  expression  of  his  own  thoughts,  and  even  his  words, 
through  the  organism  of  his  subject ;  and  although  the  phen- 
omena attaching  to  this  method  of  actual  thought-transfer- 
ence are  as  yet  few  in  number,  no  one,  I  presume,  will  under- 
take to  say  how  far  their  action  may  extend  in  the  future, 

62.  [H.  P.  Blavatsky  never  failed  to  point  out  the  danger  and  pernicious  effects  of 
the  practice  of  hypnotism.  All  faithful  students  of  Theosophy  follow  her  and 
her  successors  in  their  protest  against  the  teaching  and  practice  of  it] 


280  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHV 

when  the  laws  that  govern  their  production  are  more  scien- 
tifically established.  And  so,  if  such  results  can  be  produced 
by  the  knowledge  of  the  mere  rudiments  of  hypnotism,  what 
can  prevent  the  Adept  in  psychic  and  spiritual  powers  from 
producing  results  which,  with  your  present  limited  knowledge 
of  these  laws,  you  are  inclined  to  call  "  miraculous  "  ? 

Inq.  Then  why  do  not  our  physicians  experiment  and  try  if  they  could  not 
do  as  much?" 

Theo.  Because,  first  of  all,  they  are  not  Adepts,  with  a  thorough 
understanding  of  the  secrets  and  laws  of  psychic  and  spir- 
itual realms,  but  materialists,  afraid  to  step  outside  the  nar- 
row groove  of  matter;  and  secondly,  because  they  must  fail 
at  present,  and  indeed  until  they  are  brought  to  acknow- 
ledge that  such  powers  are  attainable. 

Inq.     And  could  they  be  taught? 

Theo.  Not  unless  they  were  first  of  all  prepared,  by  having  the 
materialistic  dross  they  have  accumulated  in  their  brains 
swept  away  to  the  very  last  atom. 

Inq.  This  is  very  interesting.  Tell  me,  have  the  Adepts  thus  inspired  or 
dictated  to  many  of  your  Theosophists  ? 

Theo.  No;  on  the  contrary,  to  very  few.  Such  operations 
require  special  conditions.  An  unscrupulous  but  skilled  Adept 
of  the  "  Black  Brotherhood  "  —  "  Brothers  of  the  Shadow," 

63.  Such,  for  instance,  as  Professor  Bernheim  and  Dr.  C.  Lloyd  Tuckey,  of  England; 
Professors  Beaunis  and  Liegeois,  of  Nancy;  Delboeuf,  of  Liege;  Burot  and 
Bourru,  of  Rochefort;  Fontain  and  Sigard,  of  Bordeaux;  Forel,  of  Zurich; 
and  Drs.  Despine,  of  Marseilles ;  Van  Renterghem  and  Van  Eeden,  of  Am- 
sterdam; Wetterstrand,  of  Stockholm;  Schrenck-Notzing,  of  Leipzig;  and  many 
other  physicians  and  writers  of  eminence. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  281 

and  Dugpas,  we  call  them  —  has  far  less  difficulties  to  labor 
under.  For,  having  no  laws  of  a  Spiritual  nature  to  trammel 
his  actions,  such  a  Dugpa  "sorcerer"  will  most  unceremoni- 
ously obtain  control  over  any  mind,  and  subject  it  entirely  to 
his  evil  powers.  But  our  Teachers  will  never  do  that.  They 
have  no  right  —  if  they  would  escape  falling  into  Black  Ma- 
gic—  to  obtain  entire  mastery  over  anyone's  immortal  Ego, 
and  can  therefore  act  only  on  the  physical  and  psychic  nature 
of  the  subject,  leaving  thereby  the  free  will  of  the  latter  whol- 
ly undisturbed.  Hence,  unless  a  person  has  been  brought 
into  psychic  relationship  with  the  Teachers,  and  is  assist- 
ed by  virtue  of  his  full  faith  in  and  devotion  to  his  teachers, 
the  latter,  whenever  transmitting  their  thoughts  to  one  with 
whom  these  conditions  are  not  fulfilled,  experience  great 
difficulties  in  penetrating  into  the  cloudy  chaos  of  that  per- 
son's sphere.  But  this  is  no  place  to  treat  of  a  subject  of  this 
nature.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  if  the  power  exists,  then  there 
are  Intelligences  (embodied  or  disembodied)  which  guide 
this  power,  and  living,  conscious  instruments  through  whom 
it  is  transmitted  and  by  whom  it  is  received.  We  have  only 
to  beware  of  Black  magic. 

Inq.     But  what  do  you  really  mean  by  "  black  magic  "  ? 

Theo.  Simply  abuse  of  psychic  powers,  or  of  any  secret  of 
nature;  the  fact  of  applying  to  selfish  and  sinful  ends  the 
powers  of  Occultism.  A  hypnotizer  who,  taking  advantage 
of  his  powers  of  "  suggestion,"  forced  a  subject  to  steal  or 
murder  would  be  called  by  us  a  black  magician.  The  famous 
"rejuvenating  system"  of  Dr.  Brown-Sequard,  of  Paris, 
through  a  loathsome  animal  injection  into  human  blood  — 


282  THE    KBY    TO    TM^OSOPHY 

a  discovery  all  the  medical  papers  of  Europe  are  now  discus- 
sing—  if  true,  is  unconscious  black  magic. 

Inq.  But  this  is  mediaeval  belief  in  witchcraft  and  sorcery!  Even  the 
law  itself  has  ceased  to  believe  in  such  things. 

Theo.  So  much  the  worse  for  the  law,  as  it  has  been  led, 
through  such  lack  of  discrimination,  into  committing  more 
than  one  judiciary  mistake  and  crime.  It  is  the  term  alone 
that  frightens  you  with  its  "superstitious"  ring  in  it.  Would 
not  law  punish  an  abuse  of  hypnotic  powers,  as  I  just  men- 
tioned? Nay,  it  has  so  punished  it  already  in  France  and 
Germany;  yet  it  would  indignantly  deny  that  it  applied  pun- 
ishment to  a  crime  of  evident  sorcery.  You  cannot  believe 
in  the  efficacy  and  reality  of  the  powers  of  suggestion  by 
physicians  and  mesmerizers  or  hypnotizers,^'*  and  then  refuse 
to  believe  in  the  same  powers  when  used  for  evil  motives. 
And  if  you  do,  then  you  believe  in  sorcery!  You  cannot  be- 
lieve in  good  and  disbelieve  in  evil,  accept  genuine  money 
and  refuse  to  credit  such  a  thing  as  false  coin.  Nothing  can 
exist  without  its  contrast;  and  no  day,  no  light,  no  good, 
could  have  any  representation  as  such  in  your  consciousness 
were  there  no  night,  no  darkness,  no  evil,  to  offset  and  con- 
trast them. 

Inq.  Indeed,  I  have  known  men  who,  while  thoroughly  believing  in  that 
which  you  call  great  psychic  or  magic  powers,  laughed  at  the  very 
mention  of  Witchcraft  and  Sorcery. 

Theo.  What  does  it  prove?  Simply  that  they  are  illogical.  So 
much  the  worse  for  them,  again.     And  we,  knowing  as  we 

64.     [More  often  than  not  unconscious  diabolism.] 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  283 

do  of  the  existence  of  good  and  holy  Adepts,  believe  as  thor- 
oughly in  the  existence  of  bad  and  unholy  Adepts,  or  — 
Dug  pas. 

Inq.  But  if  the  Masters  exist,  why  do  they  not  come  out  before  all  men 
and  refute  once  for  all  the  many  charges  which  are  made  against 
Madame  Blavatsky  and  the  Society? 

ThEo.     What  charges? 

Inq.  That  they  do  not  exist,  and  that  she  has  invented  them.  That  they 
are  men  of  straw,  "  Mahatmas  of  muslin  and  bladders."  Does  not 
all  this  injure  her  reputation? 

ThEo.  In  what  way  can  such  an  accusation  injure  her  in  reality? 
Did  she  ever  make  money  on  their  presumed  existence,  or 
derive  benefit  or  fame  therefrom?  I  answer  that  she  has 
gained  only  insults,  abuse,  and  calumnies,  which  would  have 
been  very  painful  had  she  not  learned  long  ago  to  remain 
perfectly  indififerent  to  such  false  charges.  For  what  does 
it  amount  to  after  all?  Why,  to  an  implied  compliment, 
which,  if  the  fools,  her  accusers,  were  not  carried  away  by 
their  blind  hatred,  they  would  have  thought  twice  before 
uttering.  To  say  that  she  invented  the  Masters  comes  to 
this:  that  she  must  have  invented  every  bit  of  philosophy 
that  has  ever  been  given  out  in  Theosophical  literature.  She 
must  be  the  author  of  the  letters  from  which  some  of  the 
earlier  works  were  written;  the  sole  inventor  of  every  tenet 
found  in  The  Secret  Doctrine,  which,  if  the  world  were  just, 
would  be  recognized  as  supplying  many  of  the  missing  links 
of  science,  as  will  be  discovered  a  hundred  years  hence.  By 
saying  what  they  do  they  are  also  giving  her  the  credit  of 
being  far  cleverer  than  the  hundreds  of  men  (many  very 


284  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

clever,  and  not  a  few  scientific  men)  who  believe  in  what 
she  says  —  inasmuch  as  she  must  have  fooled  them  all!  If 
they  speak  the  truth,  then  she  must  be  several  Mahatmas 
rolled  into  one,  like  a  nest  of  Chinese  boxes ;  since  among  the 
so-called  "  Mahatma  letters  "  are  many  in  totally  different 
and  distinct  styles,  all  of  which  her  accusers  declare  that  she 
has  written. 

Inq.  It  is  just  what  they  say.  But  is  it  not  very  painful  to  her  to  be 
publicly  denounced  as  "  the  most  accomplished  impostor  of  the  age, 
whose  name  deserves  to  pass  to  posterity,"  as  is  done  in  the  Report 
of  the  "  Society  for  Psychical  Research  "  ? 

TiiEo.  It  might  be  painful  if  it  were  true,  or  came  from  people 
less  rabidly  materialistic  and  prejudiced.  As  it  is,  person- 
ally she  treats  the  whole  matter  with  contempt,  while  the 
Mahatmas  simply  laugh  at  it.  In  truth,  it  is  the  greatest 
compliment  that  could  be  paid  to  her.     I  say  so,  again. 

Inq.     But  her  enemies  claim  to  have  proved  their  case. 

Theo.  Aye,  it  is  easy  enough  to  make  such  a  claim  when  you 
have  constituted  yourself  judge,  jury,  and  prosecuting  coun- 
sel at  once,  as  they  did.  But  who,  except  their  direct  follow- 
ers and  our  enemies,  believe  in  it? 

Inq.  But  they  sent  a  representative  to  India  to  investigate  the  matter, 
didn't  they   ? 

Thko.  They  did,  and  their  final  conclusion  rests  entirely  on  the 
unchecked  statements  and  unverified  assertions  of  this  young 
gentleman.  A  lawyer  who  read  through  his  report  told  a 
friend  of  mine  that  in  all  his  experience  he  had  never  seen 
"  such  a  ridiculous  and  self -condemnatory  document."     It 


THE    KEY    TO    THHOSOPHY  285 

was  found  to  be  full  of  suppositions  and  "working  hypo- 
theses" which  mutually  destroyed  each  other.  Is  this  a 
serious  charge? 

Inq.  Yet  it  has  done  the  Society  great  harm.  Why,  then,  did  she  not 
vindicate  her  own  character,  at  least,  before  a  Court  of  Law? 

Theo.  Firstly,  because  as  a  Theosophist,  it  is  her  duty  to  leave 
unheeded  all  personal  insults.  Secondly,  because  neither  the 
Society  nor  Mme.  Blavatsky  had  any  money  to  waste  over 
such  a  law-suit.  And  lastly,  because  it  would  have  been 
ridiculous  for  both  to  be  untrue  to  their  principles,  because 
of  an  attack  made  on  them  by  a  flock  of  stupid  old  British 
wethers,  who  had  been  led  to  butt  at  them  by  an  over-f  rolick- 
some  lambkin  from  Australia. 

Inq.  This  is  complimentary.  But  do  you  not  think  that  it  would  have 
done  real  good  to  the  cause  of  Theosophy,  if  she  had  authoritatively 
disproved  the  whole  thing  once  for  all? 

ThEO.  Perhaps.  But  do  you  believe  that  any  English  jury  or 
judge  would  have  ever  admitted  the  reality  of  psychic  phe- 
nomena, even  if  entirely  unprejudiced  beforehand?  And 
when  you  remember  that  they  would  have  been  set  against 
us  already  by  the  '*  Russian  Spy "  scare,  the  charges  of 
Atheism  and  infidelity,  and  all  the  other  calumnies  that  have 
been  circulated  against  us,  you  cannot  fail  to  see  that  such 
an  attempt  to  obtain  justice  in  a  Court  of  Law  would  have 
been  worse  than  fruitless !  All  this  the  Psychic  Researchers 
knew  well,  and  they  took  a  base  and  mean  advantage  of  their 
position  to  raise  themselves  above  our  heads  and  save  them- 
selves at  our  expense. 


286  THE    KBY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Inq,  The  S.  P.  R.  now  denies  completely  the  existence  of  the  Mahatmas. 
They  say  that  from  beginning  to  end  they  were  a  romance  which 
Madame  Blavatsky  has  woven  from  her  own  brain? 

Theo.  Well,  she  might  have  done  many  things  less  clever  than 
this.  At  any  rate,  we  have  not  the  slightest  objection  to 
this  theory.  As  she  always  says  now,  she  almost  prefers  that 
people  should  not  believe  in  the  Masters.  She  declares  openly 
that  she  would  rather  people  should  seriously  think  that  the 
only  *'  Mahatma-land  "  is  the  gray  matter  of  her  brain,  and 
that,  in  short,  she  has  evolved  them  out  of  the  depths  of  her 
own  inner  consciousness,  than  that  their  names  and  grand 
ideal  should  be  so  infamously  desecrated  as  they  are  at  pre- 
sent. At  first  she  used  to  protest  indignantly  against  any 
doubts  as  to  their  existence.  Now  she  never  goes  out  of  her 
way  to  prove  or  disprove  it.     Let  people  think  what  they  like. 

Inq.     But  of  course,  these  Masters  do  exist? 

ThKO.  We  affirm  they  do.  Nevertheless,  this  does  not  help 
much.  Many  people,  even  some  Theosophists  and  ex-Theo- 
sophists,  say  that  they  have  never  had  any  proof  of  their 
existence.  Very  well;  then  Mme.  Blavatsky  replies  with 
this  alternative:  —  If  she  has  invented  them,  then  she  has 
also  invented  their  philosophy  and  the  practical  knowledge 
which  some  few  have  acquired ;  and  if  so,  what  does  it  matter 
whether  they  do  exist  or  not,  since  she  herself  is  here,  and 
her  oivn  existence,  at  any  rate,  can  hardly  be  denied?  If 
the  knowledge  supposed  to  have  been  imparted  by  them  is 
good  intrinsically,  and  it  is  accepted  as  such  by  many  persons 
of  more  than  average  intelligence,  why  should  there  be 
such  a  hullabaloo  made  over  that  question?     The  fact  of 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHV  287 

her  being  an  impostor  has  never  been  proved,  and  will 
always  remain  siih  judice;  whereas  it  is  a  certain  and  un- 
deniable fact  that,  by  whomsoever  invented,  the  philosophy 
preached  by  the  "  Masters  "  is  one  of  the  grandest  and  most 
beneficent  philosophies  once  it  is  properly  understood.  Thus 
the  slanderers,  while  moved  by  the  lowest  and  meanest  feel- 
ings—  those  of  hatred,  revenge,  malice,  wounded  vanity, 
or  disappointed  ambition  —  seem  quite  unaware  that  they 
are  paying  the  greatest  tribute  to  her  intellectual  powers. 
So  be  it,  if  the  poor  fools  will  have  it  so.  Really,  Mme. 
Blavatsky  has  not  the  slightest  objection  to  being  repre- 
sented by  her  enemies  as  a  triple  Adept,  and  a  "  Mahatma" 
to  boot.  It  is  only  her  unwillingness  to  pose  in  her  own 
sight  as  a  crow  parading  in  peacock's  feathers  that  compels 
her  to  this  day  to  insist  upon  the  truth. 

Inq.  But  if  you  have  such  wise  and  good  men  to  guide  the  Society,  how 
is  it  that  so  many  mistakes  have  been  made? 

ThEO.  The  Masters  do  not  guide  the  Society,  not  even  the 
Founders;  and  no  one  has  ever  asserted  that  they  did;  they 
only  watch  over  and  protect  it.  This  is  amply  proved  by 
the  fact  that  no  mistakes  have  been  able  to  cripple  it,  and 
no  scandals  from  within,  nor  the  most  damaging  attacks 
from  without,  have  been  able  to  overthrow  it.  The  Masters 
look  at  the  future,  not  at  the  present,  and  every  mistake  is 
so  much  more  accumulated  wisdom  for  days  to  come.  That 
other  "  Master  "  who  sent  the  man  with  the  five  talents  did 
not  tell  him  how  to  double  them,  nor  did  he  prevent  the 
foolish  servant  from  burying  his  one  talent  in  the  earth. 
Each  must  acquire  wisdom  by  his  own  experience  and  mer- 


288  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

its.  The  Christian  Churches,  who  claim  a  far  higher  "  Mas- 
ter," the  very  Holy  Ghost  itself,  have  ever  been  and  are 
still  guilty  not  only  of  "mistakes,"  but  of  a  series  of  bloody 
crimes  throughout  the  ages.  Yet  no  Christian  would  deny, 
for  all  that,  his  belief  in  that  "  Master,"  I  suppose?  although 
his  existence  is  far  more  hypothetical  than  that  of  the  Ma- 
hatmas;  as  no  one  has  ever  seen  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  his 
guidance  of  the  Church,  moreover,  their  own  ecclesiastical 
history  directly  contradicts.  Errare  humanum  est.  Let  us 
return  to  our  subject. 


THE  ABUSE  OF  SACRED  NAMES  AND  TERMS 

Inq.  Then,  what  I  have  heard,  namely,  that  many  of  your  Theosophical 
writers  claim  to  have  been  inspired  by  these  Masters,  or  to  have  seen 
and  conversed  with  them,  is  not  true? 

Theo.  The  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits;  and  as  all  Theosophists 
have  to  be  judged  by  their  deeds  and  not  by  what  they  write 
or  say,  so  all  Theosophical  books  must  be  accepted  on  their 
merits,  and  not  according  to  any  claim  to  authority  which 
they  may  put  forward. 

Inq.  But  would  Madame  Blavatsky  apply  this  to  her  own  works  —  The 
Secret  Doctrine,  for  instance? 

Theo.  Certainly;  she  says  expressly  in  the  preface  that  she 
gives  out  the  doctrines  that  she  has  learned  from  the  Teach- 
ers, but  claims  no  inspiration  whatever  for  what  she  has 
lately  written.  As  for  our  best  Theosophists,  they  would  also, 
in  this  case,  far  rather  that  the  names  of  the  Teachers  had 
never  been  mixed  up  with  our  books  in  any  way.    With  few 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  289 

exceptions,  most  of  such  works  are  not  only  imperfect,  but 
positively  erroneous  and  misleading.  Great  are  the  desecra- 
tions to  which  the  names  of  two  of  the  Teachers  have  been 
subjected.  There  is  hardly  a  medium  who  has  not  claimed 
to  have  seen  them.  Every  bogus  swindling  society,  for  com- 
mercial purposes,  now  claims  to  be  guided  and  directed  by 
"  Masters,"  often  supposed  to  be  far  higher  than  ours !  Many 
and  heavy  are  the  sins  of  those  who  have  advanced  these 
claims,  prompted  either  by  desire  for  lucre,  vanity,  or  ir- 
responsible mediumship.  Many  persons  have  been  plundered 
of  their  money  by  such  societies,  which  offer  to  sell  the  secrets 
of  power,  knowledge  and  spiritual  truth  for  worthless  gold. 
Worst  of  all,  the  sacred  names  of  Occultism  and  the  holy 
keepers  thereof  have  been  dragged  in  this  filthy  mire,  pol- 
luted by  being  associated  with  sordid  motives  and  immoral 
practices,  while  thousands  of  men  have  been  held  back  from 
the  path  of  truth  and  light  through  the  discredit  and  evil 
report  which  such  shams,  swindles,  and  frauds  have  brought 
upon  the  whole  subject.  I  say  again,  every  earnest  Theo- 
sophist  regrets  today,  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  that  these 
sacred  names  and  things  have  ever  been  mentioned  before 
the  public,  and  fervently  wishes  that  they  had  been  kept 
secret  within  a  small  circle  of  trusted  and  devoted  friends. 

Inq.  The  names  certainly  do  occur  very  frequently  now-a-days,  and  I 
never  remember  hearing  of  such  persons  as  "  Masters "  till  quite 
recently. 

ThEO.  It  is  so;  and  had  we  acted  on  the  wise  principle  of 
silence,  instead  of  publishing  all  we  knew,  such  desecration 
would  never  have  occurred.  Behold,  only  fourteen  years 
ago,  before  the  Theosophical  Society  was  fovmded,  all  the 


290  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

talk  was  of  "  Spirits."  They  were  everywhere,  in  every- 
one's mouth ;  and  no  one  by  any  chance  even  dreamt  of  talk- 
ing about  living  ''Adepts,"  "  Mahatmas,"  or  ''Masters." 
One  hardly  heard  even  the  name  of  the  Rosicrucians,  while 
the  existence  of  such  a  thing  as  "  Occultism  "  was  suspected 
even  but  by  very  few.  Now  all  that  is  changed.  We  Theo- 
sophists  were,  unfortunately,  the  first  to  talk  of  these  things, 
to  make  the  fact  of  the  existence  in  the  East  of  "Adepts  " 
and  "  Masters  "  and  Occult  knowledge  known;  and  now  the 
name  has  become  common  property.  It  is  on  us,  now,  that 
the  Karma,  the  consequences  of  the  resulting  desecration 
of  holy  names  and  things,  has  fallen.  All  that  you  now 
find  about  such  matters  in  current  literature  —  and  there  is 
not  a  little  of  it  —  all  is  to  be  traced  back  to  the  impulse 
given  in  this  direction  by  the  Theosophical  Society  and  its 
Founders.  Our  enemies  profit  to  this  day  by  it.  The  most 
recent  book  directed  against  our  teachings  is  alleged  to  have 
been  written  by  an  Adept  of  tzventy  years'  standing.  Now, 
it  is  a  palpable  lie.  We  know  the  amanuensis  and  his  inspir- 
ers  (as  he  is  himself  too  ignorant  to  have  written  anything  of 
the  sort).  These  "inspirers"  are  living  persons,  revengeful 
and  unscrupulous  in  proportion  to  their  intellectual  powers; 
and  these  bogus  Adepts  are  not  one,  but  several.  The  cycle 
of  "Adepts,"  used  as  sledge-hammers  to  break  the  theosoph- 
ical heads  with,  began  twelve  years  ago,  with  Mrs.  Emma 
Hardinge  Britten's  "  Louis  "  of  Art  Magic  and  Ghost-Land, 
and  now  ends  with  the  "  Adept "  and  "  Author "  of  The 
Light  of  Egypt,  a  work  written  by  Spiritualists  against  Theo- 
sophy  and  its  teachings.  But  it  is  useless  to  grieve  over 
what  is  done,  and  we  can  only  suffer  in  the  hope  that  our  in- 


THE    KHV    TO    THEOSOPHY  2^1 

discretions  may  have  made  it  a  little  easier  for  others  to  find 
the  way  to  these  Masters,  whose  names  are  now  everywhere 
taken  in  vain,  and  under  cover  of  which  so  many  iniquities 
have  already  been  perpetrated. 

Inq.     Do  you  reject  "Louis"  as  an  Adept? 

Theo.  We  denounce  no  one,  leaving  this  noble  task  to  our 
enemies.  The  spiritualistic  author  of  Art  Magic,  etc.,  may 
or  may  not  have  been  acquainted  with  such  an  Adept  —  and 
saying  this,  I  say  far  less  than  what  that  lady  has  said  and 
written  about  us  and  Theosophy  for  the  last  few  years  — 
that  is  her  own  business.  Only  when,  in  a  solemn  scene  of 
mystic  vision,  an  alleged  "  Adept  "  sees  "  spirits  "  presum- 
ably at  Greenwich,  England,  through  Lord  Rosse's  telescope, 
which  was  built  in,  and  never  moved  from,  Parsonstown, 
Ireland,"  I  may  well  be  permitted  to  wonder  at  the  ignorance 
of  that  "  Adept "  in  matters  of  science.  This  beats  all  the 
mistakes  and  blunders  committed  at  times  by  the  chelds  of 
our  Teachers !  And  it  is  this  "  Adept "  that  is  used  now  to 
break  the  teachings  of  our  Masters ! 

Inq.  I  quite  understand  your  feeling  in  this  matter,  and  think  it  only 
natural.  And  now,  in  view  of  all  that  you  have  said  and  explained 
to  me,  there  is  one  subject  on  which  I  should  like  to  ask  you  a  few 
questions. 

Th^o.     If  I  can  answer  them  I  will.     What  is  that? 

65.    Vide,  Ghost  Land,  part  I,  p.  133  et  seq. 


292  THE   KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV 


CONCLUSION 


THB  FUTURE  OF  THE  THEOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY 

Inq.     Tell  me,  what  do  you  expect  for  Theosophy  in  the  future? 

Thdo.  If  you  speak  of  Theosophy,  I  answer  that,  as  it  has 
existed  eternally  throughout  the  endless  cycles  upon  cycles 
of  the  Past,  so  it  will  ever  exist  throughout  the  infinitudes 
of  the  Future,  because  Theosophy  is  synonymous  with 
EvERiyASTiNG  Truth. 

Inq.  Pardon  me;  I  meant  to  ask  you  rather  about  the  prospects  of  the 
Theosophical  Society. 

ThEo.  Its  future  will  depend  almost  entirely  upon  the  degree 
of  selflessness,  earnestness,  devotion,  and  last,  but  not  least, 
on  the  amount  of  knowledge  and  wisdom  possessed  by  those 
on  whom  it  will  fall  to  carry  on  the  work  and  to  direct  the 
Society  after  the  death  of  the  founder. 

Inq.  I  quite  see  the  importance  of  their  being  selfless  and  devoted,  but  I 
do  not  quite  grasp  how  their  knowledge  can  be  as  vital  a  factor  in 
the  question  as  these  other  qualities.  Surely  the  literature  which  al- 
ready exists,  and  to  which  constant  additions  are  being  made,  ought 
to  be  sufficient. 

Theo.  I  do  not  refer  to  technical  knowledge  of  the  esoteric 
doctrine,  though  that  is  most  important;  I  spoke  rather  of 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  293 

the  great  need  which  the  successors  in  the  guidance  of  the 
Society  will  have  of  unbiased  and  clear  judgment.  Every 
such  attempt  as  the  Theosophical  Society  has  hitherto  ended 
in  failure,  because,  sooner  or  later,  it  has  degenerated  into  a 
sect,  set  up  hard-and-fast  dogmas  of  its  own,  and  so  lost  by 
imperceptible  degrees  that  vitality  which  living  truth  alone 
can  impart.  You  must  remember  that  all  our  members  have 
been  bred  and  born  in  some  creed  or  religion ;  that  all  are  more 
or  less  of  their  generation,  both  physically  and  mentally ;  and 
consequently  that  their  judgment  is  but  too  likely  to  be 
warped  and  unconsciously  biased  by  some  or  all  of  these  in- 
fluences. If,  then,  they  cannot  be  freed  from  such  inherent 
bias,  or  at  least  taught  to  recognize  it  instantly  and  so  avoid 
being  led  away  by  it,  the  result  can  only  be  that  the  Society 
will  drift  ofif  on  to  some  sandbank  of  thought  or  another,  and 
there  remain,  a  stranded  carcase,  to  molder  and  die. 

Inq.     But  if  this  danger  be  averted? 

ThEo.  Then  the  Society  will  live  on  into  and  through  the  twen- 
tieth century.  It  will  gradually  leaven  and  permeate  the  great 
mass  of  thinking  and  intelligent  people  with  its  large-minded 
and  noble  ideas  of  religion,  duty,  and  philanthropy.  Slowly 
but  surely  it  will  burst  asunder  the  iron  fetters  of  creeds  and 
dogmas,  of  social  and  caste  prejudices;  it  will  break  down 
racial  and  national  antipathies  and  barriers,  and  will  open 
the  way  to  the  practical  realization  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
all  men.  Through  its  teaching,  through  the  philosophy  which 
it  has  rendered  accessible  and  intelligible  to  the  modern  mind 
the  West  will  learn  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  East 
at  its  true  value.     Further,  the  development  of  the  psychic 


294  THB    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

powers  and  faculties,  the  premonitory  symptoms  of  which 
are  already  visible  in  America,  will  proceed  healthily  and 
normally.  Mankind  will  be  saved  from  the  terrible  dangers, 
both  mental  and  bodily,  which  are  inevitable  when  that  un- 
folding takes  place,  as  it  threatens  to  do,  in  a  hotbed  of  self- 
ishness and  all  evil  passions.  Man's  mental  and  psychic 
growth  will  proceed  in  harmony  with  his  moral  improvement, 
while  his  material  surroundings  will  reflect  the  peace  and 
fraternal  goodwill  which  will  reign  in  his  mind,  instead  of 
the  discord  and  strife  which  are  everywhere  apparent  around 
us  today. 

Inq.  a  truly  delightful  picture !  But  tell  me,  do  you  really  expect  all  this 
to  be  accomplished  in  one  short  century? 

Thko.  Scarcely.  But  I  must  tell  you  that  during  the  last 
quarter  of  every  hundred  years  an  attempt  is  made  by  those 
Teachers  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  to  help  on  the  spiritual 
progress  of  humanity  in  a  marked  and  definite  way.  Toward 
the  close  of  each  century  you  will  invariably  find  that  an  out- 
pouring or  upheaval  of  spirituality  —  or  call  it  Mysticism, 
if  you  prefer  —  has  taken  place.  Some  one  or  more  persons 
have  appeared  in  the  world  as  their  agents,  and  a  greater  or 
less  amount  of  occult  knowledge  and  teaching  has  been  given 
out.  If  you  care  to  do  so,  you  can  trace  these  movements 
back,  century  by  century,  as  far  as  our  detailed  historical 
records  extend. 

Inq.     But  how  does  this  bear  on  the  future  of  the  Theosophical  Society? 

Theo.  If  the  present  attempt,  in  the  form  of  our  Society,  suc- 
ceeds better  than  its  predecessors  have  done,  then  it  will  be  in 
existence  as  an  organized,  living,  and  healthy  body  when  the 


THE    KEY    TO    TH  BO  SOPHY  295 

time  comes  for  the  effort  of  the  twentieth  century.  The 
general  condition  of  men's  minds  and  hearts  will  have  been 
improved  and  purified  by  the  spread  of  its  teachings  and, 
as  I  have  said,  their  prejudices  and  dogmatic  illusions  will 
have  been,  to  some  extent  at  least,  removed.  Not  only  so, 
but  besides  a  large  and  accessible  literature  ready  to  men's 
hands,  the  next  impulse  will  find  a  numerous  and  united  body 
of  people  ready  to  welcome  the  new  torch-bearer  of  Truth. 
He  will  find  the  minds  of  men  prepared  for  his  message,  a 
language  ready  for  him  in  which  to  clothe  the  new  truths  he 
brings,  an  organization  awaiting  his  arrival,  which  will  re- 
move the  merely  mechanical,  material  obstacles  and  difficul- 
ties from  his  path.  Think  how  much  one  to  whom  such  an 
opportunity  is  given  could  accomplish.  Measure  it  by  com- 
parison with  what  the  Theosophical  Society  actually  has 
achieved  in  the  last  fourteen  years,  without  any  of  these  ad- 
vantages, and  surrounded  by  hosts  of  hindrances  which  would 
not  hamper  this  new  leader.  Consider  all  this,  and  then  tell 
me  whether  I  am  too  sanguine  when  I  say  that  if  the  Theo- 
sophical Society  survives  and  lives  true  to  its  mission,  to  its 
original  impulses  through  the  next  hundred  years  —  tell  me, 
I  say,  if  I  go  too  far  in  asserting  that  earth  will  be  a  heaven 
in  the  twenty-first  century  in  comparison  with  what  it  is  now ! 


FINIS 


GLOSSARY 


GLOSSARY 


Absoluteness.  When  predicated  of  the  Universal  Principle,  it  denotes 
an  abstraction,  which  is  more  correct  and  logical  than  to  apply  the 
adjective  "absolute"  to  that  which  can  have  neither  attributes  nor 
limitations. 

Adam  Kadmon  (Heb.).  Archetypal  Man,  humanity.  The  "heavenly 
Man"  not  fallen  into  sin,  Kabalists  refer  it  to  the  ten  Sephiroth 
on  the  plane  of  human  perception.  In  the  Kabalah  Adam  Kadmon 
is  the  manifested  logos  corresponding  to  our  third  logos,  the  unmani- 
fested  being  the  first  paradigmic,  ideal  Man,  and  symbolizing  the 
universe  in  abscondito,  or  in  its  "privation"  in  the  Aristotelian  sense. 
The  first  logos  is  the  "  light  of  the  world,"  the  second  and  the  third 
its  gradually  deepening  shadows. 

Adept  (Lat.  adeptus).  In  Occultism,  one  who  has  reached  the  stage  of 
initiation  and  become  a  Master  in  the  science  of  Esoteric  Philosophy. 

JEtHtR  (Gr.).  With  the  ancients,  the  divine  luminiferous  substance  which 
pervades  the  whole  universe ;  the  "  garment "  of  the  supreme  deity, 
Zeus  or  Jupiter.  With  the  moderns,  ether,  for  the  meaning  of  which, 
in  physics  and  chemistry,  see  Webster's  or  some  other  dictionary. 
In  esotericism  aether  is  the  third  principle  of  the  cosmic  septenary, 
matter  (earth)   being  the  lowest,  and  akasha  the  highest. 

Agathon  (Gr.).  Plato's  supreme  deity  —  lit.,  the  "Good."  Our  alaya 
or  the  "  soul  of  the  world," 


300  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

Agnostic.  A  word  first  used  by  Professor  Huxley  to  indicate  one  who 
believes  nothing  which  cannot  be  demonstrated  by  the  senses. 

Ahankara  {Sans.).  The  conception  of  "I,"  self-consciousness  or  self- 
identity  ;  the  "  I,"  or  egoistical  and  mayavic  principle  in  man,  due 
to  our  ignorance,  which  separates  our  "  I  "  from  the  Universal  OnE- 
Self.     Personality  ;  egoism  also. 

AiN  SuPH  (Heb.).  The  "boundless"  or  "limitless"  Deity  emanating 
and  extending.  Ain  Suph  is  also  written  En  Soph  and  Ain  Soph ; 
for  no  one,  not  even  the  rabbis,  is  quite  sure  of  the  vowels.  In  the 
religious  metaphysics  of  the  old  Hebrew  philosophers  the  One  Prin- 
ciple was  an  abstraction  like  Parahrahman,  though  modern  Kabalists 
have  succeeded  by  mere  dint  of  sophistry  and  paradoxes  in  making 
a  "  Supreme  God  "  of  it,  and  nothing  higher.  But  with  the  early 
Chaldsean  Kabalists  Ain  Suph  was  "  without  form  or  being,"  with 
"no  likeness  with  anything  else."  (Franck's  Die  Kabbah,  p.  126.). 
That  Ain  Suph  has  never  been  considered  as  the  "creator"  is  proved 
conclusively  by  the  fact  that  such  an  orthodox  Jew  as  Philo  gives 
the  name  of  "creator"  to  the  logos,  who  stands  next  the  "  Limitless 
One  "  and  is  the  "  second  God."  "  The  second  God  is  in  its  [Ain 
Suph's]  wisdom,"  says  Philo.  Deity  is  no-Thing;  it  is  nameless,  and 
therefore  called  Ain  Suph  —  the  word  ain  meaning  nothing.  (See 
also  Franck,  ibid.,  p.   153.). 

Alchemy  (in  Arabic  Ul-Khemi)  is,  as  the  name  suggests,  the  chemistry 
of  nature.  Ul-Khemi  or  Al-Kimia,  however,  is  really  an  Arabianized 
word,  taken  from  the  Greek  x^M"»'  from  x^/^°^'  "  juice,"  extracted 
from  a  plant.  Alchemy  deals  with  the  finer  forces  of  Nature  and 
the  various  conditions  of  matter  in  which  they  are  found  to  operate. 
Seeking  under  the  veil  of  language  more  or  less  artificial  to  convey 
to  the  uninitiated  so  much  of  the  mysterium  magnum  as  is  safe  in 
the  hands  of  a  selfish  world,  the  Alchemist  postulates  as  his  first  prin- 
ciple the  existence  of  a  certain  universal  solvent  in  the  homogeneous 
substance  from  which  the  elements  were  evolved,  which  substance 
he  calls  pure  gold,  or  summum  materice.     This  solvent,  also  called 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  301 

menstruum  universale,  possesses  the  power  of  removing  all  the  seeds 
of  disease  from  the  human  body,  of  renewing  youth  and  prolonging 
life.  Such  is  the  lapis  philosophorum  (philosopher's  stone).  Alchemy 
first  penetrated  into  Europe  through  Geber,  the  great  Arabian  sage 
and  philosopher,  in  the  eighth  century  of  our  era;  but  it  was  known 
and  practised  long  ages  ago  in  China  and  Egypt.  Numerous  papyri 
on  Alchemy,  and  other  proofs  that  it  was  the  favorite  study  of  kings 
and  priests,  have  been  exhumed,  and  preserved  under  the  generic 
name  of  Hermetic  treatises.  Alchemy  is  studied  under  three  distinct 
aspects,  which  admit  of  many  different  interpretations,  viz.,  the  cosmic, 
the  human,  and  the  terrestrial. 

These  three  methods  were  typified  under  the  three  alchemical  proper- 
ties—  sulphur,  mercury,  and  salt.  Different  writers  have  stated  that 
there  are  three,  seven,  ten,  and  twelve  processes,  respectively;  but 
they  are  all  agreed  there  is  but  one  object  in  Alchemy,  which  is  to 
transmute  gross  metals  into  pure  gold.  But  what  that  gold  really  is 
very  few  people  understand  correctly.  No  doubt  there  is  such  a  thing 
in  Nature  as  transmutation  of  the  baser  metal  into  the  nobler;  but 
this  is  only  one  aspect  of  Alchemy  —  the  terrestrial  or  purely  material, 
for  we  see  the  same  process  taking  place  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 
Yet,  besides  and  beyond  this  interpretation,  there  is  in  Alchemy  a  sym- 
bolical meaning,  purely  psychic  and  spiritual.  While  the  Kabalist- 
Alchemist  seeks  for  the  realization  of  the  former,  the  Occultist- Al- 
chemist, spurning  the  gold  of  the  earth,  gives  all  his  attention  to,  and 
directs  his  efforts  only  toward,  the  transmutation  of  the  baser  quater- 
nary into  the  divine  upper  trinity  of  man,  which,  when  finally  blended, 
are  one.  The  spiritual,  mental,  psychic,  and  physical  planes  of  human 
existence  are  in  Alchemy  compared  to  the  four  elements,  fire,  air, 
water,  and  earth,  and  are  each  capable  of  a  threefold  constitution, 
i.  e.,  fixed,  unstable  and  volatile.  Little  or  nothing  is  known  by  the 
world  concerning  the  origin  of  this  archaic  branch  of  philosophy;  but 
it  is  certain  that  it  antedates  the  construction  of  any  known  zodiac, 
and,  as  dealing  with  the  personified  forces  of  Nature,  probably  also 
any  of  the  mythologies  of  the  world.  Nor  is  there  any  doubt  that  the 
true  secrets  of  transmutation  (on  the  physical  plane)  were  known  in 


302  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

days  of  old,  and  lost  before  the  dawn  of  the  so-called  historical  period. 
Modern  chemistry  owes  its  best  fundamental  discoveries  to  Alchemy; 
but  regardless  of  the  undeniable  truism  of  the  latter  that  there  is 
but  one  element  in  the  universe,  chemistry  placed  metals  in  the  class 
of  elements,  and  is  only  now  beginning  to  find  out  its  gross  mistake. 
Even  some  encyclopaedists  are  forced  to  confess  that  if  most  of  the 
accounts  of  transmutation  are  fraud  or  delusion,  "yet  some  of  them 
are  accompanied  by  testimony  which  renders  them  probable.  By  means 
of  the  galvanic  battery  even  the  alkalies  have  been  discovered  to  have 
a  metallic  basis.  The  possibility  of  obtaining  metal  from  other  sub- 
stances which  contain  the  ingredients  composing  it,  of  changing  one 
metal  into  another,  .  .  .  must  therefore  be  left  undecided.  Nor  are 
all  Alchemists  to  be  considered  impostors.  Many  have  labored  under 
the  conviction  of  obtaining  their  object  with  indefatigable  patience 
and  purity  of  heart,  which  is  soundly  recommended  by  Alchemists 
as  the  principal  requisite  for  the  success  of  their  labors." 

Alexandrian  Philosophers  (or  School).  This  famous  school  arose  in 
Alexandria  (Egypt),  which  was  for  long  ages  a  seat  of  learning  and 
philosophy.  It  was  famous  for  its  library,  founded  by  Ptolemy  Soter 
at  the  very  beginning  of  his  reign  (Ptolemy  died  in  283  B.C.) — a 
library  which  once  boasted  seven  hundred  thousand  rolls  or  volumes 
(Aulus  Gellius)  ;  for  its  museum,  the  first  real  academy  of  sciences 
and  arts;  for  its  world-renowned  scholars,  such  as  Euclid,  the  father 
of  scientific  geometry,  ApoUonius  of  Perga,  the  author  of  the  still 
extant  work  on  Conic  Sections,  Nichomachus,  the  arithmetician ;  for 
astronomers,  natural  philosophers,  anatomists  such  as  Herophilus  and 
Erasistratus,  physicians,  musicians,  artists,  etc.  But  it  became  still 
more  famous  for  its  Eclectic  or  New-Platonic  school,  founded  by 
Ammonius  Saccas  in  173  a.  d.,  whose  disciples  were  Origen,  Plotinus, 
and  many  other  men  now  famous  in  history.  The  most  celebrated 
schools  of  the  Gnostics  had  their  origin  in  Alexandria.  Philo  Judaeus, 
Josephus,  lamblichus,  Porphyry,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Eratosthenes 
the  astronomer,  Hypatia  the  virgin  philosopher,  and  numberless  other 
stars  of   second  magnitude,  all  belonged  at  various   times  to  these 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV  303 

great  schools,  and  helped  to  make  of  Alexandria  one  of  the  most 
justly  renowned  seats  of  learning  that  the  world  has  ever  produced. 

AivTRUiSM.  From  alter,  other.  A  quality  opposed  to  egoism.  Actions 
tending  to  do  good  to  others,  regardless  of  self. 

Ammonius  Saccas.  a  great  and  good  philosopher  who  lived  in  Alexan- 
dria between  the  second  and  third  centuries  of  our  era,  the  founder 
of  the  Neo-Platonic  school  of  the  Philaletheians  or  "  lovers  of  truth." 
He  was  of  poor  birth  and  born  of  Christian  parents,  but  endowed 
with  such  prominent,  almost  divine  goodness  as  to  be  called  Theodi- 
daktos,  the  "  God-taught."  He  honored  that  which  was  good  in  Christ- 
ianity, but  broke  with  it  and  the  churches  at  an  early  age,  being  unable 
to  find  in  it  any  superiority  over  the  old  religions. 

Analogeticists.  The  disciples  of  Ammonius  Saccas,  so  called  because 
of  their  practice  of  interpreting  all  sacred  legends,  myths,  and  mysteries 
by  a  principle  of  analogy  and  correspondence,  which  rule  is  now  found 
in  the  Kabalistic  system,  and  pre-eminently  so  in  the  schools  of  Eso- 
teric Philosophy  in  the  East.  (See  "  The  Twelve  Signs  of  the  Zodiac," 
by  T.  Subba  Rao,  in  Five  Years  of  Theosophy.) 

Ananda  (Sans.).  Bliss,  joy,  felicity,  happiness.  The  name  of  a  favor- 
ite disciple  of  Gautama,  the  Lord  Buddha. 

Anaxagoras.  a  famous  Ionian  philosopher  who  lived  500  b.  c,  studied 
philosophy  under  Anaximenes  of  Miletus,  and  settled,  in  the  days 
of  Pericles,  at  Athens.  Socrates,  Euripides,  Archelaus,  and  other 
distinguished  men  and  philosophers  were  among  his  disciples  and  pupils. 
He  was  a  most  learned  astronomer,  and  was  one  of  the  first  to  explain 
openly  that  which  was  taught  secretly  by  Pythagoras,  viz.,  the  move- 
ments of  the  planets,  the  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon.  etc.  It  was  he 
who  taught  the  theory  of  chaos,  on  the  principle  that  "nothing  comes 
from  nothing"  {ex  nihilo  nihil  fit)  ;  and  of  atoms  as  the  underlying  es- 
sence and  substance  of  all  bodies,  "of  the  same  nature  as  the  bodies 
which  they  formed."  These  atoms,  he  taught,  were  primarily  put  in  mo- 
tion by  nous  (universal  intelligence,  the  mahat  of  the  HindiJs),  which 


304  THB    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHV 

nous  is  an  immaterial,  eternal,  spiritual  entity ;  by  this  combination  the 
world  was  formed,  the  material  gross  bodies  sinking  down,  and  the  eth- 
ereal atoms  (or  fiery  ether)  rising  and  spreading"  in  the  upper  celestial 
regions.  Antedating  modern  science  by  over  two  thousand  years,  he 
taught  that  the  stars  were  of  the  same  material  as  our  earth,  and  the 
sun  a  glowing  mass;  that  the  moon  was  a  dark,  uninhabitable  body, 
receiving  its  light  from  the  sun ;  and  beyond  the  aforesaid  science 
he  confessed  himself  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  real  existence  of 
things  perceived  by  our  senses  could  not  be  demonstrably  proved.  He 
died  in  exile  at  Lampsacus,  at  the  age  of  seventy-two. 

Anima  MuNDi  (Lot.).  The  "soul  of  the  world,"  the  same  as  the  alaya 
of  the  Northern  Buddhists ;  the  divine  essence  which  pervades,  per- 
meates, animates  and  informs  all  things,  from  the  smallest  atom  of 
matter  to  man  and  god.  It  is  in  a  sense  "  the  seven-skinned  Mother  " 
of  the  stanzas  in  The  Secret  Doctrine;  the  essence  of  seven  planes 
of  sentiency,  consciousness,  and  differentiation,  both  moral  and  physi- 
cal. In  its  highest  aspect  it  is  nirvana;  in  its  lowest,  the  astral  light. 
It  was  feminine  with  the  Gnostics,  the  early  Christians,  and  the  Nazar- 
enes ;  bisexual  with  other  sects,  who  considered  it  only  in  its  four 
lower  planes,  of  igneous  and  ethereal  nature  in  the  objective  world 
of  forms,  and  divine  and  spiritual  in  its  three  higher  planes.  When 
it  is  said  that  every  human  soul  was  born  by  detaching  itself  from  the 
anima  mundi,  it  is  meant  esoterically,  that  our  higher  Egos  are  of 
an  essence  identical  with  it,  and  that  mahait  is  a  radiation  of  the  ever 
unknown  universal  Absolute. 

Anoia  (Gr.).  "Want  of  understanding,"  "folly."  The  term  applied 
by  Plato  and  others  to  the  lower  Manas  when  too  closely  allied  with 
Kama,  which  is  characterized  by  irrationality  (anoia).  The  Greek 
anoia  or  agnoia  is  evidently  a  derivative  of  the  Sanskrit  ajndna  (phon- 
etically, agnydna),  or  ignorance,  irrationality,  and  absence  of  know- 
ledge. 

Anthropomorphism.  From  the  Greek  anthropos,  man.  The  act  of  endow- 
ing God  or  the  gods  with  a  human  form  and  human  attributes  or 
qualities. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  305 

Anugita  {Sans.).  A  Upanishad,  using  the  term  in  a  general  sense.  One 
of  the  philosophical  treatises  in  the  Mahahharata,  the  great  Indian 
epic.  A  very  occult  treatise.  It  is  translated  in  "  The  Sacred  Books 
of  the  East "  series, 

Apollo  Belvedere;.  Of  all  the  ancient  statues  of  Apollo  —  the  son  of 
Jupiter  and  Latona,  called  Phoebus,  Helios,  the  Radiant,  and  the  Sun 

—  the  best  and  most  perfect  is  that  of  this  name,  which  is  in  the  Bel- 
vedere Gallery  in  the  Vatican  at  Rome.  It  is  called  the  Pythian  Apollo, 
as  the  god  is  represented  in  the  moment  of  his  victory  over  the 
serpent  Python.    The  statue  was  found  in  the  ruins  of  Antium  in  1503. 

Apollonius  of  Tyana.  a  wonderful  philosopher  born  in  Cappadocia 
about  the  beginning  of  the  first  century ;  an  ardent  Pythagorean,  who 
studied  the  Phcenician  sciences  under  Euthydemus,  and  Pythagorean 
philosophy  and  other  subjects  under  Euxenus  of  Heraclea.  Accord- 
ing to  the  tenets  of  the  Pythagorean  school,  he  remained  a  vegetarian 
the  whole  of  his  long  life,  ate  only  fruits  and  herbs,  drank  no  wine, 
wore  vestments  made  only  of  plant  fibers,  walked  barefooted,  and 
let  his  hair  grow  to  the  full  length,  as  all  the  Initiates  have  done  before 
and  after  him.  He  was  initiated  by  the  priests  of  the  temple  of 
^sculapius  (Asklepios)  at  vEgae,  and  learned  many  of  the  "miracles" 
for  healing  the  sick  wrought  by  the  god  of  medicine.  Having  pre- 
pared himself  for  a  higher  initiation  by  a  silence  of  five  years,  and 
by  travel  —  visiting  Antioch,  Ephesus,  and  Pamphylia,  and  other  parts 

—  he  repaired  via  Babylon  to  India,  alone,  all  his  disciples  having 
abandoned  him,  as  they  feared  to  go  to  the  "  land  of  enchantments." 
A  casual  disciple,  Damis,  whom  he  met  on  the  way,  accompanied  him, 
however,  on  his  travels.  At  Babylon  he  was  initiated  by  the  Chaldees 
and  Magi,  according  to  Damis,  whose  narrative  was  copied  by  one 
named  Philostratus  one  hundred  years  later.  After  his  return  from 
India  he  showed  himself  a  true  Initiate  in  that  the  pestilence,  earth- 
quakes, deaths  of  kings,  and  other  events  which  he  prophesied,  duly 
happened. 

At  Lesbos  the  priests  of  Orpheus  became  jealous  of  him  and  re- 
fused to  initiate  him  into  their  peculiar  mysteries,  though  they  did 


306  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

so  several  years  later.  He  preached  to  the  people  of  Athens  and  other 
states  the  purest  and  noblest  ethics,  and  the  phenomena  he  produced 
were  as  wonderful  as  they  were  numerous  and  well  authenticated. 
"  How  is  it,"  inquires  Justin  Martyr,  in  dismay  — "  how  is  it  that 
the  talismans  (tclesmata)  of  Apollonius  have  power? — for  they  pre- 
vent, as  we  see,  the  fury  of  the  waves,  the  violence  of  the  winds,  and 
the  attacks  of  wild  beasts ;  and  while  our  Lord's  miracles  are  preserved 
by  tradition  alone,  those  of  Apollonius  are  most  numerous,  and  actu- 
ally manifested  in  present  facts?"  {Quest.,  xxiv.)  But  an  answer 
is  easily  found  to  this  in  the  fact  that,  after  crossing  the  Hindii-Kush, 
Apollonius  had  been  directed  by  a  king  to  the  abode  of  the  sages, 
whose  abode  it  may  be  to  this  day,  and  who  taught  him  their  unsur- 
passed knowledge.  His  dialogues  with  the  Corinthian  Menippus  give 
us  truly  the  esoteric  catechism,  and  disclose  (when  understood)  many 
an  important  mystery  of  Nature.  Apollonius  was  the  friend,  cor- 
respondent, and  guest  of  kings  and  queens,  and  no  wonderful  or 
"magic"  powers  are  better  attested  than  his.  Toward  the  close  of 
his  long  and  wonderful  life  he  opened  an  esoteric  school  at  Ephesus, 
and  died  at  the  ripe  old  age  of  one  hundred  years. 

Archangel.  Highest,  supreme  angel.  From  the  two  Greek  words,  arch, 
first,   and   angelos,   messenger. 

Arhat  {Sans.).  Also  pronounced  and  written  arahat,  arhan,  rahat,  etc. 
The  "worthy  one;"  a  perfected  arya;  one  exempt  from  reincarnation, 
"  deserving  divine  honors."  This  was  the  name  first  given  to  the 
Jain,  and  subsequently  to  the  Buddhist  holy  men  initiated  into  the 
esoteric  mysteries.  The  Arhat  is  one  who  has  entered  the  last  and 
highest   path,   and   is   thus   emancipated    from    rebirth. 

Arians.  The  followers  of  Arius,  a  presbyter  of  the  church  in  Alexandria 
in  the  fourth  century.  One  who  holds  that  Christ  is  a  created  and 
human  being,  inferior  to  God  the  Father,  though  a  grand  and  noble 
man,  a  true  Adept,  versed  in  all  the  divine  mysteries. 

AristobuIvUS.    An  Alexandrian  writer  and  an  obscure  philosopher.    A  Jew 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  307 

who  tried   to  prove   that   Aristotle   explained   the   esoteric   thoughts 
of  Moses, 

Aryan.  Lit.,  "  the  holy."  Those  who  had  mastered  the  "noble  truths'' 
{arya-satyani)  and  entered  the  "noble  path"  (drya-marga)  to  nirvana 
or  moksha,  the  great  "  fourfold  "  path.  They  were  originally  known 
as  Rishis ;  but  now  the  name  has  become  the  epithet  of  a  race,  and 
our  Orientalists,  depriving  the  Hindii  Brahmans  of  their  birthright, 
have  made  Aryans  of  all  Europeans.  Since,  in  esotericism,  the  four 
paths  or  stages  can  only  be  entered  through  great  spiritual  develop- 
ment and  "  growth  in  holiness,"  they  are  called  the  drya-mdrga.  The 
degrees  of  arhatship,  called  respectively  srotdpatti,  sakriddgdmin, 
andgdmin,  and  arhat,  or  the  four  classes  of  Aryas,  correspond  to 
the  four  paths  and  truths. 

Aspect.     The  form   (rupa)   under  which  any  principle  in  septenary  man 
or  Nature  manifests  is  called  an  aspect  of  that  principle  in  Theosophy. 

Astral  Body.  The  ethereal  counterpart  or  double  of  any  physical  body 
—  doppelgdnger. 

Astrology.  The  science  which  defines  the  action  of  celestial  bodies  upon 
mundane  aflfairs,  and  claims  to  foretell  future  events  from  the  pos- 
itions of  the  stars.  Its  antiquity  is  such  as  to  place  it  among  the  very 
earliest  records  of  human  learning.  It  remained  for  long  ages  a  secret 
science  in  the  East,  and  its  final  expression  remains  so  to  this  day, 
its  exoteric  application  only  having  been  brought  to  any  degree  of 
perfection  in  the  West  during  the  lapse  of  time  since  Varaha  Mihira 
wrote  his  book  on  Astrology,  some  fourteen  hundred  years  ago. 
Claudius  Ptolemy,  the  famous  geographer  and  mathematician  who 
founded  the  system  of  astronomy  known  under  his  name,  wrote  his 
Tetrabiblos,  which  is  still  the  basis  of  modern  Astrology,  a.  d.  135. 
The  science  of  horoscopy  is  studied  now  chiefly  under  four  heads, 
viz. :  ( 1 )  Mundane,  in  its  application  to  meteorology,  seismology, 
husbandry.  (2)  State  or  Civic,  in  regard  to  the  future  of  nations, 
kings,  and  rulers.     (3)  Horary,  in  reference  to  the  solving  of  doubts 


308  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

arising  in  the  mind  upon  any  subject.  (4)  Genethliacal,  in  connection 
with  the  future  of  individuals  from  birth  unto  death.  The  Egyptians 
and  the  Chaldees  were  among  the  most  ancient  votaries  of  Astrology, 
though  their  modes  of  reading  the  stars,  and  the  modern  methods, 
differ  considerably.  The  former  claimed  that  Belus,  the  Bel  or  Elu 
of  the  Chaldees,  a  scion  of  the  Divine  Dynasty,  or  the  dynasty  of 
the  King-gods,  had  belonged  to  the  land  of  Khemi,  and  had  left  it 
to  found  a  colony  from  Egypt  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  where 
a  temple,  ministered  by  priests  in  the  service  of  the  "  lords  of  the 
stars,"  was  built.  As  to  the  origin  of  the  science,  it  is  known,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  Thebes  claimed  the  honor  of  the  invention  of 
Astrology,  whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  all  are  agreed  that  it  was  the 
Chaldees  who  taught  that  science  to  the  other  nations.  Now  Thebes 
antedated  considerably  not  only  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,"  but  also  Nipur, 
where  Bel  was  first  worshiped — Sin,  his  son  (the  moon),  being 
the  presiding  deity  of  Ur,  the  land  of  the  nativity  of  Terah,  the  Sabaean 
and  astrolater,  and  of  Abram,  his  son,  the  great  astrologer  of  biblical 
tradition.  All  tends,  therefore,  to  corroborate  the  Egyptian  claim. 
If  later  on  the  name  of  astrologer  fell  into  disrepute  in  Rome  and 
elsewhere,  it  was  owing  to  the  frauds  of  those  who  wanted  to  make 
money  of  that  which  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  Sacred  Science  of  the 
Mysteries,  and  who,  ignorant  of  the  latter,  evolved  a  system  based 
entirely  on  mathematics,  instead  of  on  transcendental  metaphysics 
with  the  physical  celestial  bodies  as  its  upddhi  or  material  basis.  Yet, 
all  persecutions  notwithstanding,  the  number  of  adherents  to  Astrology 
among  the  most  intellectual  and  scientific  minds  was  always  very 
great.  If  Cardan  and  Kepler  were  among  its  ardent  supporters, 
then  later  votaries  have  nothing  to  blush  for,  even  in  its  now  imper- 
fect and  distorted  form.  As  said  in  Isis  Unveiled  (i,  259)  :  "Astro- 
logy is  to  exact  astronomy  what  psychology  is  to  exact  physiology. 
In  astrology  and  psychology  one  has  to  step  beyond  the  visible  world 
of  matter  and  enter  into  the  domain  of  transcendent  spirit." 

Athenagoras.    a  Platonic  philosopher  of  Athens  who  wrote  An  Apology 
for  the   Christians,   in   a.  d.    177,   addressed  to   Marcus   Aurelius,   to 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  309 

prove   that   the   accusations   brought   against   them  —  viz.,   that   they 
were  incestuous  and  ate  murdered  children  —  were  untrue. 

Atman,  or  Atma  {Sans.).  The  universal  spirit,  the  divine  monad,  the 
seventh  **  principle,"  so  called,  in  the  exoteric  septenary  classification 
of  man.     The  Supreme  Soul. 

Aura  {Gr.  and  Lot.).  A  subtle,  invisible  essence  or  fluid  that  emanates 
from  human,  animal,  and  other  bodies.  It  is  a  psychic  effluvium 
partaking  of  both  the  mind  and  the  body,  as  there  is  both  an  electro- 
vital  and  at  the  same  time  an  electromental  aura;  called  in  Theosophy 
the  akashic  or  magnetic  aura.     In  Romanist  martyrology,  a  saint. 

AvATARA  {Sans.).  Divine  incarnation.  The  descent  of  a  god,  or  some 
exalted  being  who  has  progressed  beyond  the  necessity  for  rebirth 
into  the  body  of  a  simple  mortal.  Krishna  was  an  avatara  of  Vishnu. 
The  Dalai-Lama  is  regarded  as  an  avatara  of  Avalokiteshvara,  and 
the  Teschu-Lama  as  one  of  Tson-kha-pa,  or  Amitabha.  There  are 
two  kinds  of  avataras,  one  born  from  woman  and  the  other  "parent- 
less"  —  amipadaka. 


B 

Be-NESS.  a  term  coined  by  Theosophists  to  render  more  accurately  the 
essential  meaning  of  the  untranslatable  word  sat.  The  latter  word  does 
not  mean  "  Being,"  for  the  term  "  Being  "  presupposes  a  sentient  con- 
sciousness of  existence.  But  as  the  term  sat  is  applied  solely  to  the 
absolute  principle,  that  universal,  unknown  and  ever  unknowable  prin- 
ciple which  philosophical  pantheism  postulates,  calling  it  the  basic  root 
of  cosmos  and  cosmos  itself,  it  could  not  be  translated  by  the  simple 
term  "  Being."  Sat,  indeed,  is  not  even,  as  translated  by  some  Ori- 
entalists, the  "incomprehensible  entity" ;  for  it  is  no  more  an  entity 
than  a  non-entity,  but  both.  It  is,  as  said,  absolute  Be-ness,  not 
"  Being  " ;  the  one  secondless,  undivided  and  indivisible  All  ;  the  root 


310  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

of  Nature  both  visible  and  invisible,  objective  and  subjective,  compre- 
hensible and  never  to  be  fully  comprehended. 

Bhagavad-Gita  {Sans.).  Lit.,  the  "Lord's  Song."  A  portion  of  the 
Mahahhdrata,  the  great  epic  poem  of  India.  It  contains  a  dialogue 
vi^herein  Krishna  —  the  "charioteer"  —  and  Arjuna,  his  chela,  have 
a  discussion  upon  the  highest  spiritual  philosophy.  The  work  is  pre- 
eminently occult  or  esoteric. 

Black  Magic.  Sorcery,  necromancy,  or  the  raising  of  the  dead  and  other 
selfish  abuses  of  abnormal  powers.  This  abuse  may  be  unintentional ; 
still  it  has  to  remain  "  black  "  magic  whenever  anything  is  produced 
phenomenally  simply   for  one's  own  gratification. 

Boh  ME,  Jakob.  A  mystic  and  great  philosopher,  one  of  the  most  prominent 
Theosophists  of  the  mediaeval  ages.  He  was  born  about  1575  at 
Old  Diedenberg,  some  two  miles  from  Gorlitz  (Silesia),  and  died  in 
1624,  at  the  age  of  nearly  fifty.  When  a  boy  he  was  a  common  shep- 
herd, and,  after  learning  to  read  and  write  in  a  village  school,  became 
an  apprentice  to  a  poor  shoemaker  at  Gorlitz.  He  was  a  natural  clair- 
voyant of  the  most  wonderful  power.  With  no  education  or  acquain- 
tance with  science  he  wrote  works  which  are  now  proved  to  be  full  of 
scientific  truths;  but  these,  as  he  himself  says  of  what  he  wrote,  he 
"  saw  as  in  a  great  deep  in  the  eternal."  He  had  "  a  thorough  view 
of  the  universe,  as  in  chaos,"  which  yet  opened  itself  in  him,  from 
time  to  time,  "  as  in  a  young  planet,"  he  says.  He  was  a  thorough- 
born  mystic,  and  evidently  of  a  constitution  which  is  most  rare ;  one 
of  those  fine  natures  whose  material  envelope  impedes  in  no  way  the 
direct,  even  if  only  occasional,  intercommunication  between  the  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  Ego.  It  is  this  Ego  which  Jakob  Bohme,  as  so 
many  other  untrained  mystics,  mistook  for  God.  "  Man  must  acknow- 
ledge," he  writes,  "  that  his  knowledge  is  not  his  own,  but  from  God, 
who  manifests  the  ideas  of  wisdom  to  the  soul  of  man  in  zvhat 
measure  he  pleases."  Had  this  great  Theosophist  been  born  three 
hundred  years  later  he  might  have  expressed  it  otherwise.  He  would 
have  known  that  the  "  God  "  who  spoke  through  his  poor  uncultured 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  311 

and  untrained  brain  was  his  own  Divine  Ego,  the  omniscient  deity 
within  himself,  and  that  what  that  deity  gave  out  was  not  "  what  meas- 
ure he  pleased,"  but  in  the  measure  of  the  capacities  of  the  mortal  and 
temporary  dwelling  IT  informed. 

Book  of  the  Keys.  An  ancient  Kabalistic  work.  The  original  is  no  long- 
er extant,  though  there  may  be  spurious  or  disfigured  copies  or 
forgeries  of  it. 

Brahma  {Sans.).  The  student  must  distinguish  between  the  neuter  Brah- 
ma and  the  male  "creator"  of  the  Indian  Pantheon,  Brahma.  The 
former  Brahma  or  Brahman  is  the  impersonal,  supreme,  and  uncog- 
nizable  soul  of  the  universe,  from  the  essence  of  which  all  emanates, 
and  into  which  all  returns ;  which  is  incorporeal,  immaterial,  unborn, 
eternal,  beginningless  and  endless.  It  is  all-pervading,  animating  the 
highest  god  as  well  as  the  smallest  mineral  atom.  Brahma,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  male  and  the  alleged  "creator,"  exists  in  his  mani- 
festation periodically  only,  and  passes  into  pralaya  —  i.  e.,  disappears 
and  is  annihilated  —  as  periodically. 

Brahma's  Day.  A  period  of  4,320,000,000  years,  during  which  Brahma, 
having  emerged  out  of  his  Golden  Egg  (hiranya-garbha) ,  creates 
and  fashions  the  material  world  (for  he  is  simply  the  fertilizing 
and  creative  force  in  Nature).  After  this  period,  the  worlds  being 
destroyed  in  turn  by  fire  and  water,  he  vanishes  with  objective  Nature; 
and  then  comes 

Brahma's  Night.  A  period  of  equal  duration,  in  which  Brahma  is  said 
to  be  asleep.  Upon  awakening  he  recommences  the  process,  and  this 
goes  on  for  an  Age  of  Brahma,  composed  of  alternate  "  Days  "  and 
"Nights,"  and  lasting  for  100  years  of  3,110,400,000,000  solar  years 
each.  It  requires  fifteen  figures  to  express  the  duration  of  such  an 
age,  after  the  expiration  of  which  the  mahapralaya  or  Great  Dissolu- 
tion sets  in,  and  lasts  in  its  turn  for  the  same  space  of  fifteen  figures. 

Brahma-Vidya  {Sans.).  The  knowledge  or  esoteric  science  about  the 
true  nature  of  the  two  Brahmas   (Brahma  and  Brahma), 


312  THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 

Buddha  {Sans.).  ''The  Enlightened."  Generally  known  as  the  title  of 
Gautama  Buddha,  the  Prince  of  Kapilavastu,  the  founder  of  modern 
Buddhism.  The  highest  degree  of  knowledge  and  holiness.  To 
become  a  Buddha  one  has  to  break  through  the  bondage  of  sense  and 
personality;  to  acquire  a  comple'te  perception  of  the  real  Self,  and  learn 
not  to  separate  it  from  all  the  other  selves ;  to  learn  by  experience  the 
utter  unreality  of  all  phenomena,  foremost  of  all  the  visible  cosmos ; 
to  attain  a  complete  detachment  from  all  that  is  evanescent  and  finite, 
and  to  live  while  yet  on  earth  only  in  the  immortal  and  everlasting. 

BuDDHi  {Sans.).  Universal  soul  or  mind.  Mahahuddhi  is  a  name  of 
mahat;  also  the  spiritual  soul  in  man  (the  sixth  principle,  exoterically), 
the  vehicle  of  Atma  (the  seventh,  according  to  the  exoteric  enumera- 
tion). 

Buddhism  is  the  religious  philosophy  taught  by  Gautama  Buddha.  It  is 
now  split  into  two  distinct  churches,  the  Southern  and  Northern. 
The  former  is  said  to  be  the  purer,  as  having  preserved  more  re- 
ligiously the  original  teachings  of  the  Lord  Buddha.  The  Northern 
Buddhism  is  confined  to  Tibet,  China,  and  Nepaul.  But  this  distinc- 
tion is  incorrect.  If  the  Southern  Church  is  nearer,  and  has  not,  in 
fact,  departed  —  except,  perhaps,  in  trifling  dogmas,  due  to  the  many 
councils  held  after  the  death  of  the  Master  —  from  the  public  or 
exoteric  teachings  of  Shakyamuni,  the  Northern  Church  is  the  out- 
come of  Siddhartha  Buddha's  esoteric  teachings,  which  he  confined 
to  his  elect  Bhikshus  and  Arhats.  Buddhism,  in  fact,  cannot  be  just- 
ly judged  in  our  age  either  by  one  or  the  other  of  its  exoteric  popular 
forms.  Real  Buddhism  can  be  appreciated  only  by  blending  the  phil- 
osophy of  the  Southern  Church  and  the  metaphysics  of  the  Northern 
schools.  If  one  seems  too  iconoclastic  and  stern,  and  the  other  too 
metaphysical  and  transcendental,  even  to  being  overcharged  with  the 
weeds  of  Indian  exotericism  —  many  of  the  gods  of  its  Pantheon 
having  been  transplanted  under  new  names  into  Tibetan  soil  —  it  is 
due  to  the  popular  expression  of  Buddhism  in  both  churches.  Cor- 
respondentially  they  stand  in  their  relation  to  each  other  as  Protestant- 
ism to  Romanism.     Both  err  by  an  excess  of  zeal  and  erroneous  in- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  313 

terpretations,  though  neither  the  Southern  nor  the  Northern  Buddhist 
clergy  have  ever  departed  from  truth  consciously ;  still  less  have  they 
acted  under  the  dictates  af  priestocracy,  ambition,  or  an  eye  to  per- 
sonal gain  and  power,  as  the  later  churches  have. 

Buddhi-Taijasa  (5*0;/^.).  Avery  mystic  term,  capable  of  several  inter- 
pretations. In  Occultism,  however,  and  in  relation  to  the  human 
"principles"  (exoterically),  it  is  a  term  to  express  the  state  of  our 
dual  Manas,  when,  reunited  during  a  man's  life,  it  bathes  in  the 
radiance  of  Buddhi,  the  spiritual  soul.  For  Taijasa  means  "  the 
radiant  " ;  and  Manas,  becoming  radiant  in  consequence  of  its  union 
with  Buddhi,  and  being,  so  to  speak,  merged  into  it,  is  identified  with 
the  latter ;  the  trinity  has  become  one ;  and,  as  the  element  of  Buddhi 
is  the  highest,  it  becomes  Buddhi-Taijasa.  In  short,  it  is  the  human 
soul  illuminated  by  'the  radiance  of  the  divine  soul,  the  human  reason 
lit  by  the  light  of  the  Spirit  or  Divine  Self-consciousness. 


Caste.  Originally  the  system  of  the  four  hereditary  classes  into  which 
the  Indian  population  was  divided :  Brahman,  Kshatriya,  Vaishya, 
and  Shudra —  (a)  descendants  of  Brahma;  {b)  warrior;  (c)  mercan- 
tile; and  {d)  the  lowest  or  agricultural  class.  From  these  four, 
hundreds  of  divisions  and  minor  castes  have  sprung. 

Causal  Body.  This  "  body,"  which  is  in  reality  no  body  at  all,  either 
objective  or  subjective,  but  Buddhi,  the  spiritual  soul,  is  so  called 
because  it  is  the  direct  cause  of  the  sushupti  state,  leading  to  the 
tunya  state,  the  highest  state  of  samadhi.  It  is  called  karanopadhi, 
"  the  basis  of  the  cause,"  by  the  Taraka  Raja  Yogis,  which  in  tiie 
Vedanta  system  corresponds  to  both  the  vijnanamaya  and  ananda- 
niaya  kosha  (the  latter  coming  next  to  Atma,  and  therefore  being 
the  vehicle  of  the  universal  spirit).  Buddhi  alone  could  not  be  called  a 
"  causal  body,"  but  becomes  one  in  conjunction  with  Manas,  the  in- 
carnating entity  or  Ego. 


314  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Chela  (Hindi).  A  disciple.  The  pupil  of  a  Guru  or  sage;  the  follower 
of  some  adept  or  school  of  philosophy. 

Chrestos  (Gr.).  The  early  Gnostic  term  for  Christ.  This  technical  term 
was  used  in  the  fifth  century  b.  c.  by  ^schylus,  Herodotus,  and  others. 
The  mantenmata  pythochresta,  or  the  "  oracles  delivered  by  a  Pythian 
god"  through  a  pythoness,  are  mentioned  by  the  former  (Choeph., 
901),  and  pythochrestos  is  derived  from  chrao.  Chresterion  is  not 
only  the  "  test  of  an  oracle,"  but  an  offering  to,  or  for,  the  oracle. 
Chrestes  is  one  who  explains  oracles,  a  "  prophet  and  soothsayer," 
and  Chresterios,  one  who  serves  an  oracle  or  a  god.  The  earliest 
Christian  writer,  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  first  Apology,  calls  his  co- 
religionists ChresHans.  "  It  is  only  through  ignorance  that  men  call 
themselves  Christians,  instead  of  Chrestians,"  says  Lactantius  (lib,  iv., 
cap.  vii.).  The  terms  Christ  and  Christians,  spelled  originally  Chrest 
and  Chrestians,  were  borrowed  from  the  temple  vocabulary  of  the 
pagans.  Chrestos  meant,  in  that  vocabulary,  "  a  disciple  on  probation," 
a  candidate  for  hierophantship ;  who,  when  he  had  attained  it,  through 
initiation,  long  trials  and  suffering,  and  had  been  anointed  (i.  e., 
"  rubbed  with  oil,"  as  Initiates  and  even  idols  of  the  gods  were,  as  the 
last  touch  of  ritualistic  observance),  was  changed  into  Christos  —  the 
"  purified "  in  esoteric  or  mystery  language.  In  mystic  symbology, 
indeed,  Christes  or  Christos  meant  that  the  "  way,"  the  "  path,"  was 
already  trodden  and  the  goal  reached ;  when  the  fruits  of  this  arduous 
labor  —  uniting  the  personality  of  evanescent  clay  with  the  indestruc- 
tible Individuality  —  transformed  it  thereby  into  the  immortal  Ego. 
"At  the  end  of  the  way  stands  the  Christes,"  the  Purifier;  and,  the 
union  once  accomplished,  the  Chrestos,  the  "  man  of  sorrow,"  became 
Christos  himself.  Paul,  the  Initiate,  knew  this,  and  meant  this  precise- 
ly when  he  is  made  to  say  in  bad  translation,  "  I  travail  in  birth  again 
until  Christ  be  formed  in  you,"  (Gal.  iv.  19),  the  true  rendering  of 
which  is,  "  until  you  form  the  Christos  within  yourselves."  But  the 
profane,  who  knew  only  that  Chrestos  was  in  some  way  connected 
with  priest  and  prophet,  and  knew  nothing  about  the  hidden  meaning 
of  Christos,  insisted,  as  did  Lactantius  and  Justin  Martyr,  on  being 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  315 

called  Chres'tians  instead  of  Christians.  Every  good  individual,  there- 
fore, may  find  Christ  in  his  "inner  man,"  as  Paul  expresses  it  (Eph. 
iii.  16,  17),  whether  he  be  Jew,  Mussulman,  Hindii,  or  Christian. 

Christ.    See  "  Chrestos." 

Christian  Scientist.  A  newly  coined  term  for  denoting  the  practition- 
ers of  a  healing  art  by  will.  The  name  is  a  misnomer,  since  Buddhist 
or  Jew,  Hindii  or  materialist,  can  practise  this  new  form  of  "  Western 
Yoga  "  with  equal  success  if  he  can  only  guide  and  control  his  will 
with  sufficient  firmness.  The  "  Mental  Scientists  "  are  another  rival 
school.  These  work  by  a  universal  denial  of  every  disease  and  evil 
imaginable,  and  claim,  syllogistically,  that  since  universal  spirit  cannot 
be  subject  to  the  ailings  of  flesh,  and  since  every  atom  is  spirit  and  in 
spirit,  and  since,  finally,  they  —  the  healers  and  the  healed  —  are  all 
absorbed  in  this  spirit  or  deity,  there  is  not,  nor  can  there  be,  such  a 
thing  as  disease.  This  prevents  in  no  wise  both  Christian  and  Mental 
Scientists  from  succumbing  to  disease  and  nursing  chronic  ailments 
for  years  in  their  own  bodies  just  like  other  ordinary  mortals. 

Clairaudience.  The  faculty  —  whether  innate  or  acquired  by  occult  train- 
ing —  of  hearing  things  at  whatever  distance. 

Clairvoyance.  The  faculty  of  seeing  with  the  inner  eye,  or  spiritual  sight. 
As  now  used,  it  is  a  loose  and  flippant  term,  embracing  under  its 
meaning  both  a  happy  guess  due  to  natural  shrewdness  and  intuition, 
and  also  that  faculty  which  was  so  remarkably  exercised  by  Jakob 
Bohme  and  Swedenborg.  Yet  even  these  two  great  seers,  since  they 
could  never  rise  superior  to  the  general  spirit  of  the  Jewish  Bible  and 
sectarian  teachings,  have  sadly  confused  what  they  saw,  and  fallen  far 
short  of  true  clairvoyance. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus.  A  church  father  and  voluminous  writer,  who 
had  been  a  Neo-Platonist  and  a  disciple  of  Ammonius  Saccas.  He  was 
one  of  the  few  Christian  philosophers  between  the  second  and  third 
centuries  of  our  era  at  Alexandria. 


316  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

College  of  Rabbis.  A  college  at  Babylon,  most  famous  during  the  early 
centuries  of  Christianity ;  but  its  glory  was  greatly  darkened  by  the 
appearance  in  Alexandria  of  Hellenic  teachers,  such  as  Philo  Judaeus, 
Josephus,  Aristobulus  and  others.  The  former  avenged  themselves  on 
their  successful  rivals  by  speaking  of  the  Alexandrians  as  Theurgists 
and  unclean  prophets.  But  the  Alexandrian  believers  in  thaumaturgy 
were  not  regarded  as  sinners  and  impostors  when  orthodox  Jews  were 
at  the  head  of  such  schools  of  "  Hazim."  These  were  colleges  for 
teaching  prophecy  and  occult  sciences,  Samuel  was  the  chief  of  such 
a  college  at  Ramah ;  Elisha  at  Jericho.  Hillel  had  a  regular  academy 
for  prophets  and  seers ;  and  it  is  Hillel,  a  pupil  of  the  Babylonian 
college,  who  was  the  founder  of  the  sect  of  the  Pharisees  and  the 
great  orthodox  rabbis. 

Cycle  {Gr.).  From  kuklos.  The  ancients  divided  time  into  endless  cycles, 
wheels  within  wheels,  all  such  periods  being  of  various  duration,  and 
each  marking  the  beginning  or  end  of  some  event,  either  cosmic, 
mundane,  physical  or  metaphysical.  There  were  cycles  of  only  a  few 
years,  and  cycles  of  immense  duration.  The  great  Orphic  cycle,  re- 
ferring to  the  ethnological  change  of  races,  lasted  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  years,  and  that  of  Cassandrus  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  thousand.  The  latter  brought  about  a  complete  change  in  plan- 
etary influences  and  their  correlations  between  men  and  gods  —  a  fact 
entirely  lost  sight  of  by  modern  astrologers. 


D 

Deist.  One  who  admits  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  a  God  or  gods 
but  claims  to  know  nothing  of  either,  and  denies  revelation.  An  Ag- 
nostic of  olden  times. 

Deva  {Sans.).  A  god,  a  "resplendent"  deity  —  deva  (deus),  from  the 
root  div,  to  shine.  A  Deva  is  a  celestial  being  —  whether  good,  bad. 
or  indifferent  —  which  inhabits  the  three  "worlds"  or  the  three  planes 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  317 

above  us.     There  are  thirty-three  groups  or  three  hundred  and  thirty 
milhons   of  them. 

Devachan,  The  "  dwelHng  of  the  gods."  A  state  intermediate  between 
two  earth-Hves,  into  which  the  Ego  (Atma-Buddhi-Manas,  or  the  Trin- 
ity made  one)  enters  after  its  separation  from  Kama  Rupa  and  the 
disintegration  of  the  lower  principles,  on  the  death  of  the  body  on  earth. 

Dhammapada  (Pali).  A  work  containing  various  aphorisms  from  the 
Buddhist  scriptures. 

Dhyan  Chohans.  Lit,  the  "lords  of  contemplation."  The  highest  gods, 
answering  to  the  archangels  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  divine  In- 
telligences charged  with  the  supervision  of  kosmos. 

Dhyana  (Sans).  One  of  the  six  paramitas  or  perfections.  A  state  of 
abstraction  which  carries  the  ascetic  practising  it  far  above  the  region 
of  sensuous  perception  and  out  of  the  world  of  matter.  Lit.,  "con- 
templation." The  six  stages  of  dhyana  differ  only  in  the  degrees  of 
abstraction  of  the  personal  Ego  from  sensuous  life. 

Double.     The  same  as  the  astral  body  or  doppelg'dnger. 


Ecstasis  (Gr.).  A  psycho-spiritual  state;  a  physical  trance  which  induces 
clairvoyance,  and  a  beatific  state  which  brings  on  visions. 

Ego  (Lat.).  "  I  ";  the  consciousness  in  man  of  the  "  I  am  I,"  or  the  feel- 
ing of  "  I-am-ship."  Esoteric  Philosophy  teaches  the  existence  of 
two  Egos  in  man,  the  mortal  or  personal,  and  the  higher,  the  divine 
or  impersonal;  calling  the  former  "  personality,"  and  the  latter  "  indi- 
viduality." 

Egoity.  Egoity  means  "  individuality  "  —  never  "  personality,"  as  it  is 
the  opposite  of  egoism  or  "  selfishness,"  the  characteristic  par  excel- 
lence of  the  latter. 


318  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Eidolon  (Gr.).  The  same  as  that  which  we  term  the  human  phantom, 
the  astral  form. 

Elementals,  Spirits  of  the  elements.  The  creatures  evolved  in  the  four 
kingdoms  or  elements  —  earth,  air,  fire  and  water.  They  are  called 
by  the  Kabalists  gnomes  (of  the  earth),  sylphs  (of  the  air),  salaman- 
ders (of  the  fire),  and  undines  (of  the  water).  Except  a  few  of  the 
higher  kinds  and  their  rulers,  they  are  rather  the  forces  of  Nature 
than  ethereal  men  and  women.  These  forces,  as  the  servile  agents  of 
the  occultist,  may  produce  various  effects;  but  if  employed  by  "ele- 
mentaries"  (Kama  Riipas)  — in  which  case  they  enslave  the  mediums 
—  they  will  deceive.  All  the  lower  invisible  beings  generated  on  the 
fifth,  sixth  and  seventh  planes  of  our  terrestrial  atmosphere  are  called 
elementals  —  peris,  devs,  jinns,  sylvans,  satyrs,  fauns,  elves,  dwarfs, 
trolls,  norns,  kobolds,  brownies,  nixies,  goblins,  pinkies,  banshees, 
moss-people,  white  ladies,  spooks,  fairies,  etc. 

ElEusinia  (Gr.).  The  Eleusinian  Mysteries  were  the  most  famous  and 
the  most  ancient  of  all  the  Greek  Mysteries  (with  the  exception  of  the 
Samothracian),  and  were  performed  near  the  hamlet  of  Eleusis,  not 
far  from  Athens.  Epiphanius  traces  them  to  the  days  of  lacchos 
(1800  B.C.).  They  were  held  in  honor  of  Demeter,  the  great  Ceres, 
and  the  Egyptian  Isis ;  and  the  last  act  of  the  performance  referred  to 
a  sacrificial  victim  of  atonement  and  a  resurrection,  when  the  Initiate 
was  admitted  to  the  highest  degree  of  Epopt.  The  festival  of  the 
Mysteries  began  in  the  month  of  Boedromion  (September),  the  time  of 
grape-gathering,  and  lasted  from  the  15th  to  the  22nd  —  seven  days. 
The  Hebrew  Feast  of  Tabernacles  —  the  feast  of  ingatherings  —  in 
the  month  of  Ethanim  (the  seventh),  also  began  on  the  15th  and  ended 
on  the  22nd  of  that  month.  The  name  of  the  month  (Ethanim)  is 
derived,  according  to  some,  from  adonim,  adonia,  attenim,  ethanim, 
and  was  in  honor  of  Adonai,  or  Adonis  (Tham),  whose  death  was 
lamented  by  the  Hebrews  in  the  groves  of  Bethlehem.  The  sacrifice 
of  "  bread  and  wine  "  was  performed  both  in  the  Eleusinia  and  during 
the  Feast  of  Tabernacles. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  319 

Emanation.  This  doctrine,  in  its  metaphysical  meaning,  is  opposed  to 
evolution,  yet  one  with  i't.  Science  teaches  that,  physiologically,  evo- 
lution is  a  mode  of  generation  in  which  the  germ  that  develops  the 
fetus  pre-exists  already  in  the  parent,  the  development  and  final  form 
and  characteristics  of  that  germ  being  accomplished  by  Nature;  and 
that  (as  in  its  cosmology)  the  process  takes  place  blindly,  through  the 
correlation  of  the  elements  and  their  various  compounds.  Occultism 
teaches  that  this  is  only  the  apparent  mode,  the  real  process  being  eman- 
ation, guided  by  intelligent  forces  under  an  immutable  Law.  There- 
fore, while  the  occultists  and  Theosophists  believe  thoroughly  in  the 
doctrine  of  evolution  as  given  out  by  Kapila  and  Manu,  they  are 
"emanationists"  rather  than  "evolutionists."  The  doctrine  of  eman- 
ation was  at  one  time  universal.  It  was  taught  by  the  Alexandrian  as 
well  as  by  the  Indian  philosophers,  by  the  Egyptian,  the  Chaldsean  and 
Hellenic  hierophants,  and  also  by  the  Hebrews  (in  their  Kabalah,  and 
even  in  Genesis).  For  it  is  only  owing  to  deliberate  mistranslation 
that  the  Hebrew  word  asdt  was  translated  "angels"  from  the  Septua- 
gint,  while  it  means  "emanations,"  "eons,"  just  as  with  the  Gnostics. 
Indeed,  in  Deuteronomy  (xxxiii,  2)  the  word  asdt  or  ashdt  is  trans- 
lated as  "  fiery  law,"  while  the  correct  rendering  of  the  passage  should 
be,  "  from  his  right  went  [not  a  fiery  law,  but]  a  fire  according  to  lazv," 
viz.,  that  the  fire  of  one  flame  is  imparted  to  and  caught  up  by  another 

—  like  as  in  a  trail  of  inflammable  substance.  This  is  precisely  eman- 
ation, as  shown  in  Isis  Unveiled.  "  In  evolution,  as  it  is  now  be- 
ginning to  be  understood,  there  is  supposed  to  be  in  all  matter  an  im- 
pulse to  take  on  a  higher  form  —  a  supposition  clearly  expressed  by 
Manu  and  other  Hindu  philosophers  of  the  highest  antiquity.  The 
philosopher's  tree  illustrates  it  in  the  case  of  the  zinc  solution.  The 
controversy  between  the  followers  of  this  school  and  the  emana- 
tionists  may  be  briefly  stated  thus:  the  evolutionist  stops  all  inquiry 
at  the  borders  of  *  the  unknowable  ' ;  the  emanationist  believes  that 
nothing  can  be  evolved  —  or,  as  the  word  means,  unwombed  or  born 

—  except  it  has  first  been  involved,  thus  indicating  that  life  is  from  a 
spiritual  potency  above  the  whole." 

Esoteric.     Hidden,  secret.     From  the  Greek  esoterikos,  inner,  concealed. 


320  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Esoteric  Bodhism.  Secret  wisdom  or  intelligence ;  from  the  Greek  esofer- 
ikos,  inner,  and  the  Sanskrit  hodhi,  knowledge,  in  contradistinction 
to  huddhi,  the  faculty  of  knowledge  or  intelligence,  and  Buddhism,  the 
philosophy  or  law  of  Buddha,  the  "  Enlightened."  Also  written 
"  Budhism,"  from  budha  (intelligence,  wisdom),  the  son  of  Soma. 

Eurasians.  An  abbreviation  of  "  European  Asians."  The  mixed  colored 
races,  the  children  of  the  white  fathers  and  the  dark  mothers  of  India, 
and  vice  versa. 

Exoteric.     Outward,  public;  the  opposite  of  esoteric  or  hidden. 

ExTRACOSMic.  Outside  of  kosmos  or  Nature.  A  nonsensical  word  in- 
vented to  assert  the  existence  of  a  personal  god  independent  of  or 
outside  Nature  per  se;  for  as  Nature,  or  the  universe,  is  infinite  and 
limitless,  there  can  be  nothing  outside  it.  The  term  is  coined  in  oppos- 
ition to  the  pantheistic  idea  that  the  whole  kosmos  is  animated  or 
informed  with  the  spirit  of  deity.  Nature  being  but  the  garment,  and 
matter  the  illusive  shadows,  of  the  real  unseen  Presence. 


Ferho  {Syriacf).  The  highest  and  greatest  creative  power  with  the 
Nazarene  Gnostics  {Codex  Nazarceus). 

Fire-philosophers.  The  name  given  to  the  Hermetists  and  alchemists 
of  the  middle  ages,  and  also  to  the  Rosicrucians.  The  latter,  the 
successors  of  Theurgists,  regarded  fire  as  the  symbol  of  deity.  It 
was  the  source  not  only  of  material  atoms,  but  the  container  of  the 
spiritual  and  psychic  forces  energizing  them.  Broadly  analyzed,  fire 
is  a  triple  principle ;  esotericall)%  a  septenary,  as  are  all  the  rest  of  the 
elements.  As  man  is  composed  of  spirit,  soul,  and  body,  phis  a  four- 
fold aspect,  so  is  fire.  As  in  the  works  of  Robert  Flood  (Robertus 
de  Fluctibus),  one  of  the  famous  Rosicrucians,  fire  contains,  firstly, 
a  visible  flame  (body)  ;  secondly,  an  invisible,  astral  fire  (soul)  ;  and 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  321 

thirdly,  spirit.  The  four  aspects  are  (a)  heat  (Hfe),  {h)  light 
(mind),  {c)  electricity  (kamic  or  molecular  powers),  and  (</)  the 
synthetic  essences  beyond  spirit,  or  the  radical  cause  of  its  existence 
and  manifestation.  For  the  Hermetist  or  Rosicrucian,  when  a  flame 
is  extinct  on  the  objective  plane,  it  has  only  passed  from  the  seen 
world  into  the  unseen,  from  the  knowable  into  the  unknowable. 


Gautama  (Sans.).  A  proper  name  in  India.  It  is  that  of  the  Prince 
of  Kapilavastu,  son  of  Suddhodana,  the  Shakya  king  of  a  small 
territory  on  the  borders  of  Nepaul,  born  in  the  seventh  century  b.  c, 
now  called  the  "savior  of  the  world."  Gautama,  or  Gotama,  was  the 
sacerdotal  name  of  the  Shakya  family.  Born  a  simple  mortal,  he 
rose  to  Buddhahood  through  his  own  personal  and  unaided  merit; 
a  man  —  verily  greater  than  any  god ! 

Gebirol.  Solomon  ben-Yehudah,  called  in  literature  Avicebron,  An  Is- 
raelite by  birth;  a  philosopher,  poet,  and  Kabalist;  a  voluminous 
writer  and  a  mystic.  He  was  born  in  the  eleventh  century  at  Malaga 
(1021),  educated  at  Saragossa,  and  died  at  Valencia  in  1070,  murder- 
ed by  a  Mohammedan.  His  fellow-religionists  called  him  Salomon 
the  Sephardi,  or  the  Spaniard,  and  the  Arabs,  Abu  Ayyub  Suleiman 
ben-Ya'hya  Ibn  Jebirol,  while  the  scholastics  named  him  Avicebron 
(see  Myer's  Qabbalah).  Ibn  Gebirol  was  certainly  one  of  the  great- 
est philosophers  and  scholars  of  his  age.  He  wrote  much  in  Arabic, 
and  most  of  his  manuscripts  have  been  preserved.  His  greatest  work 
appears  to  be  the  Me'qor  Hayyini  —  i.  e.,  the  Fountain  of  Life  —  "  one 
of  the  earliest  exposures  of  the  secrets  of  the  speculative  Kabalah," 
as  his  biographer  informs  us. 

Gnosis  CGr.).  Lit.,  "knowledge."  The  technical  term  used  by  the  schools 
of  religious  philosophy,  both  before  and  during  the  first  centuries 
of  so-called  Christianity,  to  denote  the  object  of  their  inquiry.     This 


322  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

spiritual  and  sacred  knowledge,  the  gupta-vidya  of  the  Hindus,  could 
only  be  obtained  by  initiation  into  spiritual  mysteries  of  which  the 
ceremonial  "  Mysteries  "  were  a  type. 

Gnostics  (Gr.).  The  philosophers  who  formulated  and  taught  the  Gnosis 
or  knowledge.  They  flourished  in  the  first  three  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era.  The  following  were  eminent:  Simon  Magus,  Valen- 
tinus,  Basilides,  Marcion,  etc. 

Golden  Age.  The  ancients  divided  the  life-cycle  into  the  Golden,  Silver, 
Bronze,  and  Iron  Ages.  The  Golden  was  an  age  of  primeval  purity, 
simplicity   and  general   happiness. 

Great  Age.  There  are  several  "  Great  Ages  "  mentioned  by  the  ancients. 
In  India  the  Great  Age  embraced  the  whole  mahamanvantara,  the 
"Age  of  Brahma,"  each  "  Day "  of  which  represents  the  life-cycle 
of  a  "  chain,"  i.  e.,  it  embraces  a  period  of  seven  "  rounds."  Thus, 
while  a  "  Day  "  and  a  "  Night "  represent,  as  manvantara  and  pralaya, 
8,640,000,000  years,  an  "Age"  lasts  through  a  period  of  311,040,000- 
000,000;  after  which  the  pralaya  or  dissolution  of  the  universe  be- 
comes universal.  With  the  Egyptians  and  Greeks  the  Great  Age 
referred  only  to  the  Tropical  or  Sidereal  Year,  the  duration  of  which 
is  25,868  solar  years.  Of  the  complete  age  —  that  of  the  gods  — 
they  said  nothing,  as  it  was  a  matter  to  be  discussed  and  divulged 
only  at  the  Mysteries,  and  during  the  initiation  ceremonies.  The 
Great  Age  of  the  Chaldees  was  the  same  in  figures  as  that  of  the 
Hindiis. 

GuHYA-ViDYA   {Sans.).     The  secret  knowledge  of  mystic  mantras. 

GuPTA-ViDYA  {Sans.).  The  same  as  giihya-vidya.  Esoteric  or  secret 
science,  knowledge. 

Gyges.  "  The  ring  of  Gyges  "  has  become  a  familiar  metaphor  in  Euro- 
pean literature.  Gyges  was  a  Lydian,  who,  after  murdering  the  King 
Candaules,  married  his  widow.  Plato  tells  us  that  Gyges,  descending 
once  into  a  chasm  of  the  earth,  discovered  a  brazen  horse,  within  whose 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  323 

opened  side  was  the  skeleton  of  a  man  of  gigantic  stature,  who  had 
a  brazen  ring  on  his  finger.  This  ring,  when  placed  on  his  own  finger, 
made  him  invisible. 


H 

Hades  {Gr.).  Aides  is  the  "  invisible,"  the  land  of  shadows;  one  of  whose 
regions  was  Tartarus,  a  place  of  complete  darkness,  as  was  also  the 
region  of  profound  dreamless  sleep  in  Amenti.  Judging  by  the  allegor- 
ical description  of  the  punishments  inflicted  therein,  the  place  was 
purely  Karmic.  Neither  Hades  nor  Amenti  was  the  hell  still  preached 
by  some  retrograde  priests  and  clergymen ;  and  whether  represented 
by  the  Elysian  Fields  or  by  Tartarus,  it  could  only  be  reached  by  cross- 
ing the  river  to  the  "  other  shore."  As  well  expressed  in  Egyptian 
Belief  (Bonwick),  the  story  of  Charon,  the  ferryman  of  the  Styx, 
is  to  be  found  not  only  in  Homer,  but  in  the  poetry  of  many  lands. 
The  River  must  be  crossed  before  gaining  the  Isles  of  the  Blest.  The 
Ritual  of  Egypt  described  a  Charon  and  his  boat  long  ages  before 
Homer.    He  is  Khu-en-ra,  "  the  hawk-headed  steersman."   (SeeHELiv.) 

HaIvIvUCINATions.  a  state  produced  sometimes  by  physiological  disorders, 
sometimes  by  mediumship,  and  at  others  by  drunkenness.  But  the 
cause  that  produces  the  visions  has  to  be  sought  deeper  than  physio- 
logy. All  such,  particularly  when  produced  through  mediumship,  are 
preceded  by  a  relaxation  of  the  nervous  system,  invariably  generat- 
ing an  abnormal  magnetic  condition  which  attracts  to  the  sufferer 
waves  of  astral  light.  It  is  these  latter  that  furnish  the  various  hallu- 
cinations, which,  however,  are  not  always,  as  physicians  would  ex- 
plain them,  mere  empty  and  unreal  dreams.  No  one  can  see  that 
which  does  not  exist  —  i.  e.,  which  is  not  impressed  —  in  or  on  the 
astral  waves.  But  a  seer  may  perceive  objects  and  scenes,  whether 
past,  present,  or  future,  which  have  no  relation  whatever  to  himself; 
and  perceive,  moreover,  several  things  entirely  disconnected  from 
each  other  at  one  and  the  same  time,  so  as  to  produce  the  most  gro- 


324  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

tesque  and  absurd  combinations.  Both  drunkard  and  seer,  medium 
and  Adept,  see  their  respective  visions  in  the  astral  Ught;  only  while 
the  drunkard,  the  madman,  and  the  untrained  medium,  or  one  in  a 
brain- fever,  see  because  they  cannot  help  it,  and  evoke  jumbled  visions 
unconsciously  to  themselves  without  being  able  to  control  them,  the 
Adept  and  the  trained  seer  have  the  choice  and  the  control  of  such 
visions.  They  know  where  to  fix  their  gaze,  how  to  steady  the  scenes 
they  wish  to  observe,  and  how  to  see  beyond  the  upper  outward  layers 
of  the  astral  light.  With  the  former  such  glimpses  into  the  waves 
are  hallucinations ;  with  the  latter  they  become  the  faithful  reproduc- 
tion of  what  actually  has  been,  is,  or  will  be  taking  place.  The  glimpses 
at  random  caught  by  the  medium,  and  his  flickering  visions  in  the 
deceptive  light,  are  transformed  under  the  guiding  will  of  the  Adept 
and  seer  into  steady  pictures,  the  truthful  representation  of  that 
which  he  wills  to  come  within  the  focus  of  his  perception. 

He;ll.  a  term  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  evidently  derived  from 
the  name  of  the  Scandinavian  goddess  Hela,  just  as  the  word  Ad,  in 
Russian  and  other  Slavonian  tongues,  expressing  the  same  conception, 
is  derived  from  the  Greek  Hades;  the  only  diflference  between  the 
Scandinavian  cold  hell  and  the  hot  hell  of  the  Christians  being  found 
in  their  respective  temperatures.  But  the  idea  of  these  overheated 
regions  is  not  original  with  the  Europeans,  many  people  having  enter- 
tained the  conception  of  an  under-world  climate ;  as  well  we  may,  if 
we  localize  our  hell  in  the  center  of  the  earth.  All  exoteric  religions 
—  the  creeds  of  the  Brahmans,  Buddhists,  Zoroastrians,  Moham- 
medans, Jews,  and  the  rest  —  make  their  hells  hot  and  dark,  though 
many  are  more  attractive  than  frightful.  The  idea  of  a  hot  hell  is 
an  afterthought,  the  distortion  of  an  astronomical  allegory.  With 
the  Egyptians  hell  became  a  place  of  punishment  by  fire  not  earlier 
than  the  Seventeenth  or  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  when  Typhon  was  trans- 
formed from  a  god  into  a  devil.  But  at  whatever  time  they  implant- 
ed this  dread  superstition  in  the  minds  of  the  poor  ignorant  masses, 
the  scheme  of  a  burning  hell  and  souls  tormented  therein  is  purely 
Egyptian.     Ra  (the  Sun)  became  the  Lord  of  the  Furnace,  in  Karr, 


THB    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  325 

the  hell  of  the  Pharaohs,  and  the  sinner  was  threatened  with  misery 
"  in  the  heat  of  infernal  fires."  "A  Hon  was  there,"  says  Dr.  Birch, 
"  and  was  called  the  roaring  monster."  Another  describes  the  place  as 
"  the  bottomless  pit  and  lake  of  fire,  into  which  the  victims  are  thrown  " 
(compare  Revelation).  The  Hebrew  word  gdi-hinnom  (gehenna) 
had  never  really  the  significance  given  to  it  in  Christian  orthodoxy. 

Hermas.  An  ancient  Greek  writer,  of  whose  works  only  a  few  fragments 
now  remain  extant. 

HiEROGRAMMATisTs,  The  title  given  to  those  Eg>'ptian  priests  who  were 
intrusted  with  the  writing  and  reading  of  the  sacred  and  secret  records. 
The  "  scribes  of  the  secret  records,"  literally.  They  were  the  instruct- 
ors of  the  neophytes  preparing  for  initiation. 

HiEROPHANT.  From  the  Greek  hierophantes,  literally  "  he  who  explains 
sacred  things ;"  a  title  belonging  to  the  highest  Adepts  in  the  temples 
of  antiquity,  who  were  the  teachers  and  expounders  of  the  Mysteries, 
and  the  Initiators  into  the  final  great  Mysteries.  The  Hierophant 
stood  for  the  demiurge,  and  explained  to  the  postulants  for  initiation 
the  various  phenomena  of  creation  that  were  produced  for  their 
tuition.  "  He  was  the  sole  expounder  of  the  esoteric  secrets  and  doc- 
trines. It  was  forbidden  even  to  pronounce  his  name  before  an  unin- 
itiated person.  He  sat  in  the  East,  and  wore  as  a  symbol  of  authority 
a  golden  globe  suspended  from  the  neck.  He  was  also  called  mysta- 
gogus."     (Mackenzie,  The  Royal  Masonic  Cyclopedia.). 

HiLLEL.  A  great  Babylonian  Rabbi  of  the  century  preceding  the  Christ- 
ian era.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  a  learned 
and  a  saintly  man. 

HiNAYANA  (Sans.).  The  "  small  vehicle;"  a  scripture  and  a  school  of  the 
Buddhists,  contrasted  with  the  mahayana,  the  "  great  vehicle."  Both 
schools  are  mystical.  Also  in  exoteric  superstition,  the  lowest  form 
of   transmigration. 


326  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Homogeneity.  From  the  Greek  words  homos,  the  same,  and  genos,  kind. 
That  which  is  of  the  same  nature  throughout,  undifferentiated,  non- 
compound,  as  gold  is  supposed  to  be. 

Hypnotism.  A  name  given  by  Dr.  Braid  to  the  process  by  which  one  man 
of  strong  will-power  plunges  another  of  weaker  mind  into  a  kind  of 
trance;  once  in  such  a  state,  the  latter  will  do  anything  suggested 
to  him  by  the  hypnotizer.  The  Occultists  call  it  black  magic  or  sorcery. 
It  is  the  most  dangerous  of  practices,  morally  and  physically,  as  it 
interferes  with  the  nerve-fluids. 


I 

Iamblichus.  a  great  Theosophist  and  an  Initiate  of  the  third  century. 
He  wrote  a  great  deal  about  the  various  kinds  of  demons  who  appear 
through  evocation,  but  spoke  severely  against  such  phenomena.  His 
austerities,  purity  of  life,  and  earnestness  were  great.  He  is  credited 
with  having  been  levitated  ten  cubits  high  from  the  ground,  as  are 
some  modern  Yogis  and  mediums. 

Illusion.  In  Occultism  everything  finite  (such  as  the  universe  and  all 
in  it)    is  called  "  illusion  "  or  maya. 

Individuality.  One  of  the  names  given  in  Theosophy  and  Occultism  to 
the  human  Higher  Ego.  We  make  a  distinction  between  the  immortal 
and  divine,  and  the  mortal  human  Ego  which  perishes.  The  latter, 
or  "personality"  (personal  Ego),  survives  the  dead  body  only  for  a 
time  in  Kamaloka ;  the  "  Individuality  "  prevails  forever. 

Initiate.  From  the  Latin  initiatus.  The  designation  of  any  one  who  was 
received  into  and  had  revealed  to  him  the  mysteries  and  secrets  of 
either  Masonry  or  Occultism,  In  times  of  antiquity  they  were  those 
who  had  been  initiated  into  the  arcane  knowledge  taught  by  the 
Hierophants  of  the  Mysteries ;  and  in  our  modern  days  those  who  have 
been  initiated  by  the  Adepts  of  mystic  lore  into  the  mysterious  know- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  327 

ledge,  which,  notwithstanding  the  lapse  of  ages,  has  yet  a  few  real 
votaries  on  earth. 

IsHVARA  {Sans.).  The  "Lord,"  or  the  personal  god,  divine  spirit  in  man. 
Literally,  "sovereign"  (independent)  existence.  A  title  given  to  Shiva 
and  other  gods  in  India.  Shiva  is  also  called  Ishvaradeva,  or  Sov- 
ereign Deva. 

Iu-Kabar  Zivo.  a  Gnostic  term.  The  "  Lord  of  the  Eons  "  in  the  Nazar- 
ene  system.  He  is  the  procreator  (emanator)  of  the  seven  "  Holy 
Lives  "  (the  seven  primal  Dhyan  Chohans  or  archangels,  each  rep- 
resenting one  of  the  cardinal  virtues),  and  is  himself  called  the  third 
Life  (third  Logos).  In  the  Codex  Nasarceus  he  is  addressed  as  the 
"  Helm  "  and  "  Vine  "  of  the  food  of  life.  Thus  he  is  identical  with 
Christ  (Christos),  who  says  "I  am  the  true  vine,  and  my  Father  is 
the  husbandman."  (John  xv.  1.)  It  is  well  known  that  Christ  is 
regarded  in  the  Roman  Church  as  the  "  Chief  of  the  Eons,"  as  also 
is  Michael,  "  who  is  as  God."  Such  also  was  the  belief  of  the 
Gnostics. 


J 

Javidan  Khirad   (Pers.).     A  work  on  moral  precepts. 

Jhana  (Pali).    The  Sanskrit  jiiana,  knowledge,  occult  wisdom. 

JosEPHus,  Flavins.  A  historian  of  the  first  century ;  a  Hellenized  Jew  who 
lived  in  Alexandria  and  died  at  Rome.  He  was  credited  by  Eusebius 
with  having  written  the  sixteen  famous  lines  relating  to  Christ,  which 
were  most  probably  interpolated  by  Eusebius  himself,  the  greatest 
forger  among  the  church  fathers.  This  passage  in  which  Josephus, 
although  he  was  an  ardent  Jew  and  died  in  Judaism,  is  nevertheless 
made  to  acknowledge  the  Messiahship  and  divine  origin  of  Jesus, 
is  now  declared  spurious  both  by  most  of  the  Christian  Bishops 
(Lardner  among  others)  and  even  by  Paley.  (See  his  Evidences  of 
Christianity.)  It  was  for  centuries  one  of  the  weightiest  proofs 
of  the  real  existence  of  Jesus,  the  Christ, 


328  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

K 

Kabalah  (Heb.)  "  The  hidden  wisdom  of  the  Hebrew  rabbis  of  the 
middle  ages,  derived  from  the  older  secret  doctrines  concerning  di- 
vine things  and  cosmogony,  which  were  combined  into  a  theolog)' 
after  the  time  of  the  captivity  of  the  Jews  in  Babylon."  All  the  works 
that  fall  under  the  esoteric  category  are  termed  Kabalistic. 

Kamaloka  (Satis.).  The  .y^mt-material  plane,  to  us  subjective  and  in- 
visible, where  the  disembodied  "  personalities,"  the  astral  forms  called 
Kama  Riipa,  remain  until  they  fade  out  from  it  by  the  complete  ex- 
haustion of  the  effects  of  the  mental  impulses  that  created  these  eidolons 
of  the  lower  animal  passions  and  desires.  It  is  the  Hades  of  the 
ancient  Greeks  and  the  Amenti  of  the  Egyptians  —  the  land  of  Silent 
Shadows. 

Kama  Rupa  (Sans.).  Metaphysically  and  in  our  Esoteric  Philosophy 
it  is  the  subjective  form  created,  through  the  mental  and  physical  de- 
sires and  thoughts  in  connection  with  things  of  matter,  by  all  sentient 
beings;  a  form  which  survives  the  death  of  its  body.  After  that  death, 
three  of  the  seven  "principles"  (or,  let  us  say,  planes  of  the  senses  and 
consciousness  on  which  the  human  instincts  and  ideation  act  in  turn), 
viz.,  the  body,  its  astral  prototype,  and  physical  vitality,  being  of  no 
further  use,  remain  on  earth ;  the  three  higher  principles,  grouped  into 
one,  merge  into  a  state  of  Devachan  (q.v.),  in  which  state  the  higher 
Ego  will  remain  until  the  hour  for  a  new  reincarnation  arrives,  and  the 
eidolon  of  the  ex-personality  is  left  alone  in  its  new  abode.  Here  the 
pale  copy  of  the  man  that  was  vegetates  for  a  period  of  time,  the  dur- 
ation of  which  is  variable  according  to  the  element  of  materiality  which 
is  left  in  it,  and  which  is  determined  by  the  past  life  of  the  defunct. 
Bereft  as  it  is  of  its  Jiigher  mind,  spirit  and  physical  senses,  if  left  alone 
to  its  own  senseless  devices  it  will  gradually  fade  out  and  disintegrate. 
But  if  forcibly  drawn  back  into  the  terrestrial  sphere  whether  by  the 
passionate  desires  and  appeals  of  the  surviving  friends  or  by  regular 
necromantic  practices  —  one  of  the  most  pernicious  of  which  is  med- 
iumship  —  the  "spook"  may  prevail  for  a  period  greatly  exceeding  the 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  Z29 

span  of  the  natural  life  of  its  body.  Once  the  Kama  Riipa  has  learned 
the  way  back  to  living  human  bodies,  it  becomes  a  vampire  feeding  on 
the  vitality  of  those  who  are  so  anxious  for  its  company.  In  India 
these  eidolons  are  called  pisachas,  and  are  much  dreaded. 

Kapilavastu  {Sans.).  The  birthplace  of  the  Lord  Buddha,  called  the 
"yellow  dwelling,"  the  capital  of  the  monarch  who  was  the  father  of 
Gautama  Buddha. 

Kardec,  Allan.  The  adopted  name  of  the  founder  of  the  French  Spirit- 
ists, whose  real  name  was  Rivaille.  It  was  he  who  gathered  and  pub- 
lished the  trance  uttterances  of  certain  mediums,  and  afterwards  made 
a  "philosophy"  of  them,  between  the  years   1855  and    1870. 

Karma  {Sans.).  Physically,  Action;  metaphysically,  the  Law  of  Retri- 
bution ;  the  Law  of  Cause  and  Effect,  or  Ethical  Causation.  It  is 
Nemesis  only  in  the  sense  of  bad  Karma.  It  is  the  eleventh  nidana 
in  the  concatenation  of  causes  and  effects  in  orthodox  Buddhism;  yet 
it  is  the  power  that  controls  all  things,  the  resultant  of  moral  action, 
the  metaphysical  samskara,  or  the  moral  effect  of  an  act  committed 
for  the  attainment  of  something  which  gratifies  a  personal  desire. 
There  is  the  Karma  of  merit  and  the  Karma  of  demerit.  Karma 
neither  punishes  nor  rewards ;  it  is  simply  the  one  Universal  Law  which 
guides  unerringly  and,  so  to  say,  blindly,  all  other  laws  productive  of 
certain  effects  along  the  grooves  of  their  respective  causations. 
When  Buddhism  teaches  that  "  Karma  is  that  moral  kernel  (of  any 
being)  which  alone  survives  death  and  continues  in  transmigration  " 
or  reincarnation,  it  simply  means  that  there  remains  naught  after  each 
personality  but  the  causes  produced  by  it,  causes  which  are  undying, 
i.  e.,  which  cannot  be  eliminated  from  the  universe  until  replaced  by 
their  legitimate  effects  and,  so  to  speak,  wiped  out  by  them.  And 
such  causes,  unless  compensated  with  adequate  effects  during  the  life 
of  the  person  who  produced  them,  will  follow  the  reincarnated  Ego 
and  reach  it  in  its  subsequent  incarnations,  until  a  full  harmony  be- 
tween effects  and  causes  is  fully  re-established.  No  "personality"  — 
a  mere  bundle  of  material  atoms  and  instinctual  and  mental  charac- 


330  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

teristics  —  can,  of  course,  continue  as  such  in  the  world  of  pure  spirit. 
Only  that  which  is  immortal  in  its  very  nature  and  divine  in  its  essence 
—  namely,  the  Ego  —  can  exist  forever.  And  as  it  is  that  Ego  which 
chooses  the  personality  it  will  inform  after  each  Devachan,  and  which 
receives  through  these  personalities  the  effects  of  the  karmic  causes 
produced,  it  is  therefore  the  Ego,  that  Self — which  is  the  "moral 
kernel"  referred  to,  and  in  fact  embodied  Karma  itself  —  "which 
alone  survives  death." 

Kether  (Heb.).  "The  Crown,  the  highest  of  the  ten  Sephiroth;  the 
first  of  the  supernal  triad.  It  corresponds  to  the  Macroprosopos, 
Vast  Countenance,  or  Arikh  Anpin,  which  differentiates  into  Chok- 
mah  and  Binah." 

Krishna  (Sans.).  The  most  celebrated  avatara  of  Vishnu,  the  "savior" 
of  the  Hindiis,  and  the  most  popular  god.  He  is  the  eighth  avatara, 
the  son  of  Devaki  and  nephew  of  Kansha,  the  Indian  Herod,  who, 
seeking  for  him  among  the  shepherds  and  cowherds  who  concealed 
him,  slew  thousands  of  their  newly  born  babes.  The  story  of  Krishna's 
conception,  birth  and  childhood  is  the  exact  prototype  of  the  New 
Testament  story.  The  missionaries,  of  course,  try  to  show  that  the 
Hindus  stole  the  story  of  the  nativity  from  the  early  Christians  who 
came  to  India. 

KsHETRAjNA,  or  Kshetrajfieshvara  (Sans.).  Embodied  spirit  in  occult- 
ism, the  conscious  Ego  in  its  highest  manifestations;  the  reincar- 
nating principle,  or  the  "  Lord "   in  us. 

KuMARA  (Sans.).  A  virgin  boy  or  young  celibate.  The  first  kumaras 
are  the  seven  sons  of  Brahma,  born  out  of  the  limbs  of  the  god  in 
the  so-called  ninth  "  creation."  It  is  stated  that  the  name  was  given 
to  them  owing  to  their  formal  refusal  to  "procreate"  their  species, 
and  thus  they  "  remained  Yogis,"  according  to  the  legend. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  m 


Labre,  St.  a  Roman  saint  solemnly  beatified  a  few  years  ago.  His 
great  holiness  consisted  in  sitting  at  one  of  the  gates  of  Rome  night 
and  day  for  forty  years,  and  remaining  unwashed  through  the  whole 
of  that  time,  the  result  of  which  was  that  he  was  eaten  by  vermin 
to  his  bones. 

Lao-Tze  {Chin.).  A  great  sage,  saint,  and  philosopher,  who  was  the  con- 
temporary of  Confucius. 

Law  of  Retribution.     See  "  Karma." 

LiNGA  SharIra  {Sans.).  "Astral  body,"  i.  e.,  the  aerial  symbol  of  the  body. 
This  term  designates  the  doppelgdnger,  or  the  "astral  body"  of  man 
or  animal.  It  is  the  eidolon  of  the  Greeks,  the  vital  and  prototypal 
body,  the  reflection  of  the  man  of  flesh.  It  is  born  before  man,  and 
dies  or  fades  out  with  the  disappearance  of  the  last  atom  of  the  body. 

Logos  {Gr.).  The  manifested  deity  with  every  nation  and  people;  the 
outward  expression  or  the  eflfect  of  the  Cause  which  is  ever  concealed. 
Thus  speech  is  the  logos  of  thought ;  hence,  in  its  metaphysical  sense, 
it   is   aptly  translated   by   the  terms   "  Verbum "   and   "  Word," 

Long  Face.  A  Kabalistic  term ;  Arikh  Anpin  in  Hebrew,  or  "  Long  Face  " ; 
in  Greek,  Macroprosopos,  as  contrasted  with  "  Short  Face,"  or  Zeir 
Anpin,  the  Microprosopos.  One  relates  to  deity,  the  other  to  man, 
the  "  little  image  of  the  great  form." 

Longinus,  Dionysius  Cassius.  A  famous  critic  and  philosopher,  born  in 
the  very  beginning  of  the  third  century  (about  a.  d.  213).  He  was  a 
great  traveler,  and  attended  at  Alexandria  the  lectures  of  Ammonius 
Saccas,  the  founder  of  Neo-Platonism,  but  was  rather  a  critic  than  a 
follower.  Porphyry  (the  Jew  Malek  or  Malchus)  was  his  pupil  be- 
fore he  became  the  disciple  of  Plotinus.  It  is  said  of  him  that  he  was 
a  living  library  and  a  walking  museum.  Toward  the  end  of  his  life 
he  became  the  instructor  in  Greek  literature  of  Zenobia,  queen  of  Pal- 


332  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

myra.  She  repaid  his  services  by  accusing  him  before  the  Emperor 
Aurelian  of  having  advised  her  to  rebel  against  the  latter,  a  crime  for 
which  Longinus,  with  several  others,  was  put  to  death  by  the  emperor 
in  273. 


M 

Macrocosm.    The  "  great  universe  "  or  kosmos. 

Magic.  The  "  great "  science.  According  to  Deveria  and  other  Orient- 
alists, "  magic  was  considered  as  a  sacred  science  inseparable  from  re- 
ligion "  by  the  oldest  and  most  civilized  and  learned  nations.  The 
Egyptians,  for  instance,  were  a  most  sincerely  religious  nation,  as  were, 
and  are  still,  the  Hindus.  "  Magic  consists  of,  and  is  acquired  by,  the 
worship  of  the  gods,"  says  Plato.  Could,  then,  a  nation  which,  owing 
to  the  irrefragable  evidence  of  inscriptions  and  papyri,  is  proved  to 
have  firmly  believed  in  magic  for  thousands  of  years  have  been  de- 
ceived for  so  long  a  time  ?  And  is  it  likely  that  generations  upon  gen- 
erations of  a  learned  and  pious  hierarchy,  many  among  whom  led  lives 
of  self-martyrdom,  holiness  and  asceticism,  would  have  gone  on  de- 
ceiving themselves  and  the  people  (or  even  only  the  latter)  for  the 
pleasure  of  perpetuating  belief  in  "miracles"?  Fanatics,  we  are  told, 
will  do  anything  to  enforce  belief  in  their  gods  or  idols.  To  this  we 
reply:  In  such  cases  Brahmans  and  Egyptian  rekhget-amens  or  Hiero- 
phants  would  not  have  popularized  the  belief  in  the  power  of  man  to 
command  the  services  of  the  gods  by  magic  practices;  which  gods  are 
in  truth  but  the  occult  powers  or  potencies  of  Nature,  personified  by 
the  learned  priests  themselves,  who  reverenced  in  them  only  the  attrib- 
utes of  the  one  unknown  and  nameless  principle.  As  Proclus,  the 
Platonist,  ably  puts  it :  "  Ancient  priests,  when  they  considered  that 
there  is  a  certain  alliance  and  sympathy  in  natural  things  to  each 
other,  and  in  things  manifest  to  occult  powers,  and  discovered  that 
all  things  subsist  in  all,  fabricated  a  sacred  science  from  this  mutual 
sympathy  and  similarity,  .  .  .  and  applied  for  occult  purposes  both 
celestial  and  terrene  natures,  by  means  of  which,  through  a  certain  sim- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  333 

ilitude,  they  deduced  divine  natures  into  this  inferior  abode,"  Magic 
is  the  science  of  communicating  with  and  directing  supernal  supra- 
mundane  f)Otencies,  as  well  as  commanding  those  of  lower  spheres ;  a 
practical  knowledge  of  the  hidden  mysteries  of  Nature,  which  are 
known  only  to  the  few,  because  they  are  so  difficult  to  acquire  without 
falling  into  sin  against  the  law.  Ancient  and  mediaeval  mystics  di- 
vided magic  into  three  classes  —  Theurgia,  Goetia  and  Natural  Magic. 
"  Theurgia  has  long  since  been  appropriated  as  the  peculiar  sphere  of 
the  Theosophists  and  metaphysicians,"  says  Kenneth  Mackenzie. 
"  Goetia  is  black  magic,  and  '  natural '  or  white  magic  has  risen  with 
healing  in  its  wings  to  the  proud  position  of  an  exact  and  progressive 
study."  The  comments  added  by  our  late  learned  brother  are  remark- 
able :  *'  The  realistic  desires  of  modern  times  have  contributed  to  bring 
magic  into  disrepute  and  ridicule.  .  .  .  Faith  (in  one's  own  self)  is 
an  essential  element  in  magic,  and  existed  long  before  other  ideas  which 
presume  its  pre-existence.  It  is  said  that  it  takes  a  wise  man  to  make 
a  fool ;  and  a  man's  idea  must  be  exalted  almost  to  madness  —  i.  e.,  his 
brain  susceptibilities  must  be  increased  far  beyond  the  low,  miserable 
status  of  modern  civilization  —  before  he  can  become  a  true  magician, 
for  a  pursuit  of  this  science  implies  a  certain  amount  of  isolation  and 
an  abnegation  of  self."  A  very  great  isolation,  certainly,  the  achieve- 
ment of  which  constitutes  a  wonderful  phenomenon,  a  miracle  in  itself. 
Withal,  magic  is  not  something  supernatural.  As  explained  by  lam- 
blichus :  "  They,  through  the  sacerdotal  theurgy,  announce  that  they 
are  able  to  ascend  to  more  elevated  and  universal  essences,  and  to  those 
that  are  established  above  fate,  viz.,  to  god  and  the  demiurgus ;  neither 
employing  matter,  nor  assuming  any  other  things  besides,  except  the 
observation  of  a  sensible  time."  Already  some  are  beginning  to  re- 
cognize the  existence  of  subtle  powers  and  influences  in  Nature,  in 
which  they  have  hitherto  known  naught.  But,  as  one  writer  truly  re- 
marks, "  the  nineteenth  century  is  not  that  which  has  observed  the 
genesis  of  new,  nor  the  completion  of  old,  methods  of  thought;"  to 
which  Mr.  Bonwick  adds  that  "  if  the  ancients  knew  but  little  of  our 
mode  of  investigation  into  the  secrets  of  Nature,  we  know  still  less  of 
their  mode  of  research," 


334  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Magic,   Black.     Sorcery,  abuse  of  powers. 

Magic,  Ceremonial.  Magic,  according  to  Kabalistic  rites,  worked  out, 
as  alleged  by  the  Rosicrucians  and  other  mystics,  by  invoking  powers 
spiritually  higher  than  man,  and  commanding  elementals  who  are  far 
lower  than  himself  on  the  scale  of  being. 

Magic,  White.  "  Beneficent  magic,"  so  called,  is  divine  magic,  devoid 
of  selfishness,  love  of  power,  of  ambition  or  lucre,  and  bent  only  on 
doing  good  to  the  world  in  general  and  one's  neighbor  in  particular. 
The  smallest  attempt  to  use  one's  abnormal  powers  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  self  makes  of  these  powers  sorcery  or  black  magic. 

Mahamanvantara  {Sans.).  The  great  interludes  between  the  Manus, 
the  period  of  universal  activity.  Manvantara  here  implies  simply  a 
period  of  activity,  as  opposed  to  pralaya  or  rest,  without  reference 
to  the  length  of  the  cycle. 

Mahat  (Sans.).  Lit,  the  "great"  one.  The  first  principle  of  universal 
intelligence  and  consciousness.  In  the  Puranic  philosophy,  the  first 
product  of  root-nature  or  pradhana  (the  same  as  mulaprakriti)  ;  the 
producer  of  manas,  the  thinking  principle,  and  of  ahankara,  egotism, 
or  the  feeling  of  "  I  am  I  "  in  the  lower  Manas. 

Mahatma  (Sans.).  Lit.,  "great  soul."  An  Adept  of  the  highest  order. 
An  exalted  being,  who,  having  attained  to  the  mastery  over  his  lower 
principles,  is  therefore  living  unimpeded  by  the  "  man  of  flesh." 
Mahatmas  are  in  possession  of  knowledge  and  power  commensurate 
with  the  stage  they  have  reached  in  their  spiritual  evolution.  Called 
in  Pali  Arahats  or  Rahats. 

Mahayana  (Sans.).  A  school  of  Buddhistic  philosophy;  lit.,  the  "great 
vehicle."  A  mystical  system  founded  by  Nagarjuna.  Its  books  were 
written  in  the  second  century  b.  c. 

Manas  (Sans.).  Lit.,  "mind."  The  mental  faculty  which  makes  of  a 
man  an  intelligent  and  moral  being,  and  distinguishes  him  from  the 
mere  animal;  a  synonym  of  mahat:    Esoterically,  however,  it  means, 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  335 

when  unqualified,  the  Higher  Ego,  or  the  sentient  reincarnating  prin- 
ciple in  man.  When  qualified,  it  is  called  by  Theosophists  Buddhi- 
Manas,  or  the  spiritual  soul,  in  contradistinction  to  its  human  reflec- 
tion, Kama-Manas. 

Manasa-putra  {Sans.).  Lit.,  "the  sons  of  mind"  or  mind-born  sons; 
a  name  given  to  our  Higher  Egos  before  they  incarnated  in  mankind. 
In  the  exoteric,  though  allegorical  and  symbolic  Puranas  (the  an- 
cient mythological  writings  of  Hindiis),  it  is  the  title  given  to  the 
mind-born  sons  of  Brahma,  the  kumaras. 

Manas-sutratma  {Sans.).  Two  words  meaning  "mind"  {manas)  and 
"thread-soul"  {sutratma).  It  is,  as  said,  the  synonym  of  our  Ego, 
or  that  which  reincarnates.  It  is  a  technical  term  of  Vedantic  phil- 
osophy. 

Manas-Taijasa  {Sans.).  Lit.,  the  "  radiant "  Manas;  a  state  of  the  higher 
Ego  which  only  high  metaphysicians  are  able  to  realize  and  compre- 
hend.    The  same  as  "Buddhi-Taijasa,"  which  see. 

Mantras  {Sans.).  Verses  from  the  Vedic  works,  used  as  incantations 
and  charms.  By  mantras  are  meant  those  portions  of  the  Vedas  which 
are  distinct  from  the  Brahmanas  or  their  interpretation. 

Manu  {Sans.).  The  great  Indian  legislator.  The  name  comes  from  the 
Sanskrit  root  man,  to  think,  MAN  really  standing  only  for  Svayam- 
bhuva,  the  first  of  the  Manus,  who  started  from  SvayambhCi,  the 
Self-existent,  who  is  hence  the  Logos  and  the  progenitor  of  mankind. 
Manu  is  the  first  legislator  —  almost  a  divine  being. 

Manvantara  {Sans.).  A  period  of  manifestation,  as  opposed  to  pralaya, 
dissolution  or  rest;  the  term  is  applied  to  various  cycles,  especially  to 
a  Day  of  Brahma,  4,320,000,000  solar  years,  and  to  the  reign  of  one 
Manu,  308,448,000.  Lit.,  Manu-antara,  between  Manus.  (See  Secret 
Doctrine,  ii.  68  et  seq.). 

Master.  A  translation  from  the  Sanskrit  guru,  "  spiritual  teacher,"  and 
adopted  by  the  Theosophists  to  designate  the  Adepts,  from  whom  they 
hold  their  teachings. 


336  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Materialist.  Not  necessarily  only  one  who  believes  in  neither  God  nor 
soul,  but  also  any  person  who  materializes  the  purely  spiritual ;  such 
as  believers  in  an  anthropomorphic  deity,  in  a  soul  capable  of  burning 
in  hell-fire,  and  a  hell  and  paradise  as  localities  instead  of  states  of 
consciousness.  American  "  Substantialists,"  a  Christian  sect,  are  mater- 
ialists, as  also  the  so-called  Spiritualists. 

Materializations.  In  Spiritualism  the  word  signifies  the  objective  appear- 
ance of  the  so-called  "  spirits  of  the  dead,"  who  reclothe  themselves 
occasionally  in  matter ;  i.  e.,  they  form  for  themselves,  out  of  the  ma- 
terials at  hand,  found  in  the  atmosphere  and  the  emanations  of  those 
present,  a  temporary  body  bearing  the  human  likeness  of  the  defunct, 
as  he  appeared  when  alive.  Theosophists  accept  the  phenomena  of 
"materialization,"  but  they  reject  the  theory  that  it  is  produced  by 
"spirits,"  i.  e.,  the  immortal  principles  of  disembodied  persons.  Theo- 
sophists hold  that  when  the  phenomena  are  genuine  —  which  is  a  fact 
of  rarer  occurrence  than  is  generally  believed  —  they  are  produced  by 
the  larvae,  the  eidolons,  or  kamalokic  "ghosts"  of  the  dead  personalities. 
(See  "  Kamaloka "  and  "Kama  Riipa.")  As  Kamaloka  is  on  the 
earth-plane  and  diflfers  from  its  degree  of  materiality  only  in  the  degree 
of  its  plane  of  consciousness,  for  which  reason  it  is  concealed  from  our 
normal  sight,  the  occasional  apparition  of  such  shells  is  as  natural  as 
that  of  electric  balls  and  other  atmospheric  phenomena.  Electricity 
as  a  fluid,  or  atomic  matter  (for  Occultists  hold  with  Maxwell  that  it 
is  atomic),  is  ever,  though  invisibly,  present  in  the  air.  This  fluid 
can  also  manifest  under  various  shapes,  but  only  when  certain  condi- 
tions are  present  to  "materiaHze"  it,  when  it  passes  from  its  own  on 
to  our  plane  and  makes  itself  objective.  Similarly  with  the  eidolons 
of  the  dead.  They  are  present  around  us,  but,  being  on  another  plane, 
do  not  see  us  any  more  than  we  see  them.  But  whenever  the  strong 
desires  of  living  men  and  the  conditions  furnished  by  the  abnormal 
constitutions  of  mediums  are  combined  together,  these  eidolons  are 
drawn  —  nay,  pulled  —  down  from  their  plane  on  to  ours  and  made 
objective.  This  is  necromancy;  it  does  no  good  to  the  dead,  and  great 
harm  to  the  living,  in  addition  to  the  fact  that  it  interferes  with  a  law 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  337 

of  Nature.  The  occasional  materialization  of  the  "astral  bodies"  or 
doubles  of  living  persons  is  quite  another  matter.  These  "astrals"  are 
often  mistaken  for  the  apparitions  of  the  dead,  since,  chameleon-like, 
our  own  "elementaries,"  along  with  those  of  the  disembodied,  and 
cosmic  elementals,  will  often  assume  the  appearance  of  those  images 
which  are  strongest  in  our  thoughts.  In  short,  at  the  so-called  "ma- 
terialization seances"  it  is  those  present  and  the  medium  who  create 
the  peculiar  "apparition."  Independent  apparitions  belong  to  another 
kind  of  psychic  phenomena. 

Maya  (Sans.).  Illusion;  the  cosmic  power  which  renders  phenomenal 
existence  and  the  perceptions  thereof  possible.  In  Hindu  philosophy 
that  alone  which  is  changeless  and  eternal  is  called  reality;  all  that 
which  is  subject  to  change  through  decay  and  differentiation,  and  which 
has,  therefore,  a  beginning  and  an  end,  is  regarded  as  mdyd,  illusion. 

Mediumship.  a  word  now  accepted  to  indicate  that  abnormal  psycho- 
physiological state  which  leads  a  person  to  take  the  fancies  of  his  im- 
agination, his  hallucinations,  real  or  artificial,  for  realities.  No  en- 
tirely healthy  person  on  the  physiological  and  psychic  planes  can  ever 
be  a  medium.  That  which  mediums  see,  hear  and  sense  is  "real." 
but  untrue;  it  is  either  gathered  from  the  astral  plane,  so  deceptive  in 
its  vibrations  and  suggestions,  or  from  pure  hallucinations,  which  have 
no  actual  existence  but  for  him  who  perceives  them.  "  Mediumship  " 
is  a  kind  of  vulgarized  mediatorship,  in  which  one  afflicted  with  this 
faculty  is  supposed  to  become  an  agent  of  communication  between  a 
living  man  and  a  departed  "  spirit."  There  exist  regular  methods  of 
training  for  the  development  of  this  undesirable  acquirement. 

Mercavah  (Heb.).  "A  chariot.  The  Kabalists  say  that  the  Supreme, 
after  he  had  established  the  ten  Sephiroth  —  which,  in  their  totality, 
are  Adam  Kadmon,  the  Archetypal  Man  —  used  them  as  a  chariot 
or  throne  of  glory  in  which  to  descend  upon  the  souls  of  men." 

Mesmerism.  The  term  comes  from  Mesmer,  who  rediscovered  this  mag- 
netic force  and  its  practical  application,  toward  the  year  1775,  at 
Vienna.    It  is  a  vital  current  that  one  person  may  transfer  to  another, 


338         •  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

and  through  which  he  induces  an  abnormal  state  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem that  permits  him  to  have  a  direct  influence  upon  the  mind  and 
will  of  the  subject  or  mesmerized  person. 

Me;taphysics.  From  the  Greek  meta,  beyond,  and  physika,  the  things  of 
the  external  material  world.  It  is  to  forget  the  spirit  and  hold  to  the 
dead  letter  to  translate  it  "  beyond  nature  "  or  supernatural,  as  it  is 
rather  beyond  the  natural,  visible  or  concrete.  Metaphysics  in  onto- 
logy  and  philosophy,  is  the  term  to  designate  that  science  which  treats 
of  the  real  and  permanent  being  as  contrasted  with  the  unreal,  illusion- 
ary  or  phenomenal  being. 

Microcosm.  The  "  little  universe,"  meaning  man,  made  in  the  image  of 
his  creator,  the  Macrocosm,  or  "  great  universe,"  and  containing  all 
that  the  latter  contains.  These  terms  are  used  in  Occultism  and 
Theosophy. 

MiSHNAH  (Heb.).  Lit.,  a  "  repetition,"  from  the  word  shdnah,  "to  repeat" 
something  said  orally.  A  summary  of  written  explanations  from  the 
oral  traditions  of  the  Jews,  and  a  digest  of  the  scriptures  on  which 
the   later  Talmud  was  based. 

MoKSHA  (Sans.).  The  same  as  nirvana-,  a  post-mortem  state  of  rest  and 
bliss   of  the  "  soul-pilgrim," 

Monad,  It  is  the  "unity,"  the  "  One  " ;  but  in  Occultism  it  often  means  the 
unified  duad,  Atma-Buddhi,  or  that  immortal  part  of  man  which,  in- 
carnating in  the  lower  kingdoms  and  gradually  progressing  through 
them  to  man,  finds  thence  way  to  the  final  goal,  nirvana. 

Monas  {Gr.).  In  the  Pythagorean  system  the  Duas  emanates  from  the 
higher  and  solitary  Monas,  which  is  thus  the  First  Cause. 

MonogEnES  {Gr.).  Lit.,  the  "only  begotten";  a  name  of  Proserpina  and 
other  goddesses  and  gods,  as  also  of  Jesus. 

Mundaka  Upanishad  {Sans.).  Lit.,  the  "  Mundaka  Esoteric  Doctrine," 
A  work  of  high  antiquity. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  339 

Mysteries.  The  Sacred  Mysteries  were  enacted  in  the  ancient  temples 
by  the  initiated  Hierophants  for  the  benefit  and  instruction  of  can- 
didates. The  most  solemn  and  occult  were  certainly  those  which  were 
performed  in  Egypt  by  "  the  band  of  secret-keepers,"  as  Mr.  Bonwick 
calls  the  Hierophants.  Maurice  describes  their  nature  very  graph- 
ically in  a  few  lines.  Speaking  of  the  Mysteries  performed  in  Philar; 
(the  Nile-island),  he  says:  "  It  was  in  these  gloomy  caverns  that  the 
grand  mystic  arcana  of  the  goddess  (Isis)  were  unfolded  to  the  ador- 
ing aspirant,  while  the  solemn  hymn  of  initiation  resounded  through 
the  long  extent  of  these  stony  recesses."  The  word  "mystery"  is 
derived  from  the  Greek  niuo,  to  close  the  mouth,  and  every  symbol 
connected  with  them  had  a  hidden  meaning.  As  Plato  and  many  of 
the  other  sages  of  antiquity  affirm,  the  Mysteries  were  highly  religious, 
moral  and  beneficent  as  a  school  of  ethics.  The  Grecian  Mysteries  — 
those  of  Ceres  and  Bacchus  —  were  only  imitations  of  the  Egyptian ; 
and  the  author  of  Egyptian  Belief  and  Modern  Thought  informs  us 
that  our  own  word  "chapel  or  capella  is  said  to  be  the  caph-el  or  col- 
lege of  el,  the  solar  divinity."  The  well-known  Kabiri  are  associated 
with  the  Mysteries. 

In  short,  the  Mysteries  were  in  every  country  a  series  of  dramatic 
performances,  in  which  the  mysteries  of  cosmogony  and  Nature  in 
general  were  personified  by  the  priests  and  neophytes,  who  enacted 
the  parts  of  various  gods  and  goddesses,  repeating  supposed  scenes 
(allegories)  from  their  respective  lives.  These  were  explained  in 
their  hidden  meaning  to  the  candidates  for  initiation,  and  incorporated 
into  philosophical  doctrines. 

Mystery  Language.  The  sacerdotal  secret  "jargon"  used  by  the  initiated 
priests,  and  employed  only  when  discussing  sacred  things.  Every  na- 
tion had  its  own  "mystery"  tongue,  unknown  to  all  save  those  admitted 
to  the  Mysteries. 

Mystic.  From  the  Greek  word  mystikos.  In  antiquity,  one  belonging  to 
those  admitted  to  the  ancient  Mysteries;  in  our  own  times,  one  wiio 
practises    mysticism,    holds    mystic,    transcendental    views,    etc. 


340  THE   KEY   TO    THHOSOPHY 

Mysticism.  Any  doctrine  involved  in  mystery  and  metaphysics,  and  deal- 
ing more  with  the  ideal  worlds  than  with  our  actual,  matter-of-fact 
universe. 


N 

Nazarene  Codex.  The  Scriptures  of  the  Nazarenes  and  of  the  Nabatheans 
also.  According  to  sundry  church  fathers  —  Jerome  and  Epiphanius 
especially  —  they  were  heretical  teachings,  but  are  in  fact  one  of  the 
numerous  Gnostic  readings  of  cosmogony  and  theogony,  which  pro- 
duced a  distinct  sect. 

Necromancy.  The  raising  of  the  images  of  the  dead,  considered  in  an- 
tiquity and  by  modern  Occultists  as  a  practice  of  black  magic.  lam- 
blichus.  Porphyry,  and  other  theurgists  deprecated  the  practice  no 
less  than  Moses,  who  condemned  the  "witches"  of  his  day  to  death, 
the  said  witches  being  often  only  mediums  —  e.  g.,  the  case  of  the 
witch  of  Endor  and  Samuel. 

Neo-Platonists.  a  school  of  philosophy  which  arose  between  the  second 
and  third  centuries  of  our  era,  and  was  founded  by  Ammonius  Saccas 
of  Alexandria.  The  same  as  the  Philaletheians  and  the  Analogeticists ; 
they  were  also  called  Theurgists,  and  by  various  other  names.  They 
were  the  Theosophists  of  the  early  centuries.  Neo-Platonism  is 
Platonic  philosophy  plus  ecstasy,  divine  Raja  Yoga. 

Nephesh  (Heb.).  "Breath  of  Hfe,"  aninia,  mens  vitce,  appetites.  The 
term  is  used  very  loosely  in  the  Bible.  It  generally  means  Prana, 
"  life ;"  in  the  Kabalah  it  is  the  animal  passions  and  the  animal  soul. 
Therefore,  as  maintained  in  Theosophical  teachings,  nephesh  is  the 
prana-kamic  principle,   or  the  vital   animal   soul   in   man. 

Nirmanakaya  {Satis.).  Something  entirely  different  in  Esoteric  Phil- 
osophy from  the  popular  meaning  attached  to  it,  and  from  the  fancies 
of  the  Orientalists.  Some  call  the  nirmanakaya,  or  body,  "nirvana 
with  remains"   (Schlagintweit),  on  the  supposition,  probably,  that  it 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  341 

is  a  kind  of  nirvanic  condition  during  which  consciousness  and  form 
are  retained.  Others  say  that  it  is  one  of  the  trikdya  (three  bodies), 
with  "  the  power  of  assuming  any  form  or  appearance  in  order  to 
propagate  Buddhism  "  (Eitel's  idea)  ;  again,  that  "  it  is  the  incarnate 
avdtara  of  a  deity  "  (ibid.).  Occultism,  on  the  other  hand,  says  (Voice 
of  the  Silence)  that  nirmdnakdya,  although  meaning  literally  a  trans- 
formed "body,"  is  a  state.  The  form  is  that  of  the  Adept  or  yogi 
who  enters,  or  chooses,  that  post-mortem  condition  in  preference  to 
the  dhannakdya  or  absolute  nirvanic  state.  He  does  this  because  the 
latter  kdya  separates  him  forever  from  the  world  of  form,  conferring 
upon  him  a  state  of  selfish  bliss,  in  which  no  other  living  being  can  par- 
ticipate, the  Adept  being  thus  precluded  from  the  possibility  of  helping 
humanity,  or  even  devas.  As  a  nirmdnakdya,  however,  the  Adept 
leaves  behind  him  only  his  physical  body,  and  retains  every  other 
"principle,"  save  the  kamic,  for  he  has  crushed  this  out  forever  from 
his  nature  during  life,  and  it  can  never  resurrect  in  his  post-mortem 
state.  Thus,  instead  of  going  into  selfish  bliss,  he  chooses  a  life  of 
self-sacrifice,  an  existence  which  ends  only  with  the  life-cycle,  in  order 
to  be  enabled  to  help  mankind  in  an  invisible,  yet  most  effective  manner. 
(See  Voice  of  the  Silence,  Third  Treatise,  "The  Seven  Portals.") 
Thus  a  nirmdnakdya  is  not,  as  popularly  believed,  the  body  "  in  which 
a  Buddha  or  a  Bodhisattva  appears  on  earth,"  but  verily  one  who, 
whether  a  chutuktu  or  a  khubilkan,  an  Adept  or  a  yogi,  during  life, 
has  since  become  a  member  of  that  invisible  Host  which  ever  protects 
and  watches  over  humanity  within  karmic  limits.  Mistaken  often  for 
a  "spirit,"  a  deva,  God  himself,  etc.,  a  nirmdnakdya  is  ever  a  protect- 
ing, compassionate,  verily  a  guardian  angel  to  him  who  is  worthy  of 
his  help.  Whatever  objection  may  be  brought  forward  against  this 
doctrine,  however  much  it  is  denied  —  because,  forsooth,  it  has  never 
hitherto  been  made  public  in  Europe,  and  therefore,  since  it  is  un- 
known to  Orientalists,  it  must  needs  be  a  "myth  of  modern  invention" 
—  no  one  will  be  bold  enough  to  say  that  this  idea  of  helping  suffering 
mankind  at  the  price  of  one's  own  almost  interminable  self-sacrifice 
is  not  one  of  the  grandest  and  noblest  that  was  ever  evolved  from  the 
human  brain. 


342  THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 

Nirvana  {Sans.).  According  to  the  Orientalists,  the  entire  "blowing  out," 
like  the  flame  of  a  candle;  the  utter  extinction  of  existence.  But  in 
the  esoteric  explanations  it  is  the  state  of  absolute  existence  and  ab- 
solute consciousness,  into  which  the  Ego  of  a  man  who  had  reached 
the  highest  degree  of  perfection  and  holiness  during  life  goes  after  the 
body  dies,  and  occasionally,  as  in  the  case  of  Gautama  Buddha  and 
others,  during  life. 

NiRVANi  {Sans.).  One  who  has  attained  nirvana  —  an  emancipated  Soul. 
That  nirvana  means  something  very  different  from  the  puerile  asser- 
tions of  Orientalists,  every  scholar  who  has  visited  India,  China  or 
Japan  is  well  aware.  It  is  "  escape  from  misery,"  but  only  from  that  of 
matter;  freedom  from  klesha  or  kama,  and  the  complete  extinction  of 
animal  desires.  If  we  are  told  that  the  Abhidamma  defines  nirvana 
as  "  a  state  of  absolute  annihilation,"  we  concur,  adding  to  the  last 
word  the  qualification  "  of  everything  connected  with  matter  or  the 
physical  world,"  and  this  simply  because  the  latter  (as  also  all  in  it) 
is  illusion  or  mdya.  Shakyamuni  Buddha  said  in  the  last  moments  of 
his  life,  "  The  spiritual  body  is  immortal."  As  Mr.  Eitel,  the  scholarly 
Sinologist,  explains  it :  "  The  popular  exoteric  systems  agree  in  de- 
fining nirvana  negatively  as  a  state  of  absolute  exemption  from  the 
circle  of  transmigration ;  as  a  state  of  entire  freedom  from  all  forms 
of  existence  —  to  begin  with,  freedom  from  all  passion  and  exertion ; 
a  state  of  indifference  to  all  sensibility  "  —  and  he  might  have  added 
"  death  of  all  compassion  for  the  world  of  suffering."  And  this  is 
why  the  Bodhisattvas  who  prefer  the  nirmanakaya  to  the  dharmakaya 
vesture  stand  higher  in  the  popular  estimation  than  the  nirvanis.  But 
the  same  scholar  adds  that  "  positively  [and  esoterically]  they  define 
nirvana  as  the  highest  state  of  spiritual  bliss,  as  absolute  immortality 
through  absorption  of  the  soul  [spirit,  rather]  into  itself,  but  preserv- 
ing individuality,  so  that,  e.  g.,  Buddhas,  after  entering  nirvana,  may 
reappear  on  earth  —  i.  e.,  in  the  future  manvantara." 

NouMENON  {Gr.).  The  true  essential  nature  of  Being  as  distinguished 
from  the  illusive  objects  of  sense. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY  343 

Nous  {Gr.).  A  Platonic  term  for  the  higher  mind  or  soul.  It  means 
spirit  as  distinct  from  animal  soul,  psyche;  divine  consciousness  or 
mind  in  man.  The  name  was  adopted  by  the  Gnostics  for  their  first 
conscious  eon,  which,  with  the  Occultists,  is  the  third  logos,  cosmic- 
ally,  and  the  third  "principle"  (from  above),  or  Manas,  in  man. 

NouT  {Eg.).  In  the  Egyptian  Pantheon  it  meant  the  "One-Only-One," 
because  it  does  not  proceed  in  the  popular  or  exoteric  religion  higher 
than  the  third  manifestation  which  radiates  from  the  Unknowable  and 
the  Unknown  in  the  Esoteric  Philosophy  of  every  nation.  The  nous 
of  Anaxagoras  was  the  mahat  of  the  Hindiis  — Brahma,  the  first  mani- 
fested deity  —  "  the  mind  or  spirit  self-potent."  This  creative  prin- 
ciple is  the  primiim  mobile  of  everything  to  be  found  in  the  universe  — 
its  soul  or  ideation. 


o 

Occultism.     See  "  Occult  Sciences." 

Occultist.  One  who  practices  Occultism,  an  Adept  in  the  secret  sciences, 
but  very  often  applied  to  a  mere  student. 

Occult  Sciences.  The  science  of  the  secrets  of  Nature  —  physical  and 
psychic,  mental  and  spiritual;  called  Hermetic  and  esoteric  sciences. 
In  the  West  the  Kabalah  may  be  named ;  in  the  East,  Mysticism,  magic 
and  Yoga-philosophy.  The  latter  is  often  referred  to  by  the  chelas 
in  India  as  the  seventh  darshana  or  school  of  philosophy,  there  being 
only  six  darshanas  in  India  known  to  the  world  of  the  profane.  These 
sciences  are,  and  have  been  for  ages,  hidden  from  the  vulgar,  for  the 
very  good  reason  that  they  would  never  be  appreciated  by  the  selfish 
educated  classes,  who  would  misuse  them  for  their  own  profit,  and  thus 
turn  the  Divine  science  into  black  magic ;  nor  by  the  uneducated,  who 
would  not  understand  them.  It  is  often  brought  forward  as  an  ac- 
cusation against  the  Esoteric  Philosophy  of  the  Kabalah  that  its  liter- 
ature is  full  of  "  a  barbarous  and  meaningless  jargon,"  unintelligible 


344  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

to  the  ordinary  mind.  But  do  not  exact  sciences  —  medicine,  physio- 
logy, chemistry,  and  the  rest,  —  plead  guilty  to  the  same  impeachment  ? 
Do  not  official  scientists  veil  their  facts  and  discoveries  with  a  newly 
coined  and  most  barbarous  Greco-Latin  terminology?  As  justly  re- 
marked by  our  late  brother,  Kenneth  Mackenzie,  "  to  juggle  thus  with 
words,  when  the  facts  are  so  simple,  is  the  art  of  the  scientists  of  the 
present  time,  in  striking  contrast  to  those  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
who  called  spades  spades,  and  not  '  agricultural  implements.'  "  More- 
over, while  their  "  facts  "  would  be  as  simple  and  as  comprehensible 
if  rendered  in  ordinary  language,  the  facts  of  occult  science  are  of  so 
abstruse  a  nature  that  in  most  cases  no  words  exist  in  European  lan- 
guages to  express  them.  Finally,  our  "  jargon  "  is  a  double  necessity, 
(a)  for  describing  clearly  these  facts  to  one  who  is  versed  in  the  occult 
terminology;  and  {b)  for  concealing  them  from  the  profane. 

Olympiodorus.  The  last  Neo-Platonist  of  fame  and  celebrity  in  the  school 
of  Alexandria.  He  lived  in  the  sixth  century  under  the  Emperor 
Justinian.  There  were  several  writers  and  philosophers  of  this  name 
in  pre-Christian  as  in  post-Christian  periods.  One  of  these  was  the 
teacher  of  Proclus,  another  a  historian  in  the  eighth  century,  and  so  on. 

Origen.  a  Christian  churchman,  born  at  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
probably  in  Africa,  of  whom  little,  if  anything  is  known,  since  his  bio- 
graphical fragments  have  passed  to  posterity  on  the  authority  of  Euse- 
bius,  the  most  unmitigated  falsifier  that  has  ever  existed  in  any  age. 
The  latter  is  credited  with  having  collected  upward  of  one  hundred 
letters  of  Origen  (Origenes  Adamantius),  which  are  now  said  to  have 
been  lost.  To  Theosophists  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  works  of 
Origen  is  his  "  Doctrine  of  the  Pre-existence  of  Souls."  He  was  a 
pupil  of  Ammonius  Saccas,  and  for  a  long  time  attended  the  lectures 
of  this  great  teacher  of  philosophy. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  345 

P 

PANTi^NUS.  A  Platonic  philosopher  in  the  Alexandrian  school  of  the 
Philaletheians. 

Pandora.  In  Greek  mythology,  the  first  woman  on  earth,  created  by  Vulcan 
out  of  clay  to  deceive  Prometheus  and  counteract  his  gift  to  mortals. 
Each  god  having  made  her  a  present  of  some  quality,  she  viras  made  to 
carry  them  in  a  box  to  Prometheus  who,  however,  being  endowed  with 
foresight,  sent  her  away,  changing  the  gifts  into  evils.  Thus,  when 
his  brother  Epimetheus  afterward  married  her,  on  opening  the  box  all 
the  evils  now  afflicting  humanity  issued  from  it,  and  have  remained 
since  then  in  the  world. 

Pantheist.  One  who  identifies  God  with  Nature  and  vice  versa.  If  we 
have  to  regard  Deity  as  an  infinite  and  omnipresent  principle,  this 
can  hardly  be  otherwise.  Nature  being  thus  simply  the  physical  aspect 
of  Deity,  or  its  body. 

Parabrahman.  (Sans.).  A  Vedantin  term  meaning  "beyond  Brahma." 
The  supreme  and  the  absolute  principle,  impersonal  and  nameless. 
In  the  Veda  it  is  referred  to  as  "  THAT." 

Paranirvana.  In  the  Buddhistic  philosophy,  the  highest  form  of  nirvana 
—  beyond  the  latter. 

Parsis.  The  present  Persian  followers  of  Zoroaster,  now  settled  in  India, 
especially  in  Bombay  and  Gujerat;  sun  and  fire  worshippers.  One  of 
the  most  intelligent  and  esteemed  communities  in  the  country,  gener- 
ally occupied  with  commercial  pursuits.  There  are  between  fifty 
and  sixty  thousand  now  left  in  India,  where  they  settled  some  one 
thousand  years  ago. 

Personality.  The  teachings  of  Occultism  divide  man  into  three  aspects  — 
the  divine,  the  thinking  or  rational,  and  the  irrational  or  animal  man. 
For  metaphysical  purposes,  also,  he  is  considered  under  a  septenary 
division  or,  as  it  is  agreed  to  express  it  in  Theosophy,  he  is  composed 
of  seven  "principles,"  three  of  which  constitute  the  higher  triad,  and 


346  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

the  remaining  four  the  lower  quaternary.  It  is  in  the  latter  that  dwells 
the  personality,  which  embraces  all  the  characteristics,  including  mem- 
ory and  consciousness,  of  each  physical  life  in  turn.  The  individuality 
is  the  Higher  Ego  (Manas)  of  the  triad  considered  as  a  unity.  In 
other  words,  the  individuality  is  our  imperishable  Ego  which  reincarn- 
ates and  clothes  itself  in  a  new  personality  at  every  new  birth. 

Phallic  Worship.  Sex-worship;  reverence  and  adoration  shown  to  those 
gods  and  goddesses  which,  like  Shiva  and  Durga  in  India,  symbolize 
respectively  the  two   sexes, 

Philadelphians.  Lit.,  "  those  that  love  their  brother-men."  A  sect  in 
the  seventeenth  century  founded  by  one  Jane  Lead.  They' objected 
to  all  rites,  forms  or  ceremonies  of  the  church,  and  even  to  the  church 
itself,  but  professed  to  be  guided  in  soul  and  spirit  by  an  internal 
deity,  their  own  Ego,  or  God  within  them. 

Philaletheians.    See  "  Neo-Platonists." 

Phieo  Jud.^us.  a  Hellenized  Jew  of  Alexandria,  a  famous  historian  and 
philosopher  of  the  first  century ;  born  about  the  year  30  b.  c,  and  died 
between  the  years  45  and  50  a,  d.  Philo's  symbolism  of  the  Bible  is 
very  remarkable.  The  animals,  birds,  reptiles,  trees  and  places  men- 
tioned in  it  are  all,  it  is  said,  "  allegories  of  conditions  of  the  soul,  of 
faculties,  dispositions  or  passions;  the  useful  plants  were  allegories  of 
virtues,  the  noxious  of  the  affections  of  the  unwise,  and  so  on  through 
the  mineral  kingdom ;  through  heaven,  earth  and  stars ;  through  foun- 
tains and  rivers,  fields  and  dwellings ;  through  metals,  substances,  arms, 
clothes,  ornaments,  furniture,  the  body  and  its  parts,  the  sexes,  and 
our  outward  condition."  {Diet.  Christ.  Biog.)  All  of  which  would 
strongly  corroborate  the  idea  that  Philo  was  acquainted  with  the  an- 
cient Kabalah. 

Philosopher's  Stone.  A  term  in  Alchemy;  called  also  the  powder  of  pro- 
jection, a  mysterious  "principle"  having  the  power  of  transmuting  the 
base  metals  into  pure  gold.  In  Theosophy  it  symbolizes  the  trans- 
mutation of  the  lower  animal  nature  of  man  into  the  highest  divine. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  347 

PhrEN.  a  Pythagorean  term  denoting  what  we  call  the  Kama-Manas, 
still    overshadowed    by    Buddhi-Manas. 

Plane.  From  the  Latin  planus,  level,  flat.  An  extension  of  space, 
whether  in  the  physical  or  metaphysical  sense.  In  Occultism,  the 
range  or  extent  of  some  state  of  consciousness,  or  the  state  of  matter 
corresponding  to  the  perceptive  powers  of  a  particular  set  of  senses 
or  the  action  of  a  particular  force. 

Planetary  Spirits.    Rulers  and  governors  of  the  planets.    Planetary  gods. 

Plastic  Used  in  Occultism  in  reference  to  the  nature  and  essence  of  the 
astral  body,  or  the  "  protean  soul." 

PleROMa.  "  Fulness ; "  a  Gnostic  term,  used  also  by  St.  Paul.  Divine 
world  or  the  abode  of  gods.  Universal  space  divided  into  metaphys- 
ical cons. 

PloTinus.  a  distinguished  Neo-Platonic  philosopher  of  the  third  century, 
a  great  practical  mystic,  renowned  for  his  virtues  and  learning.  He 
taught  a  doctrine  identical  with  that  of  the  Vedantins,  namely  that 
the  spirit-soul  emanated  from  the  one  deific  principle,  and  after  its 
pilgrimage  on  earth  was  reunited  to  it. 

Porphyry  (Porphyrins).  His  real  name  was  Melech,  which  led  to  his 
being  regarded  as  a  Jew.  He  came  from  Tyre,  and  having  first  studied 
under  Longinus,  the  eminent  philosopher-critic,  became  the  disciple  of 
Plotinus  at  Rome.  He  was  a  Neo-PIatonist  and  a  distinguished  writer, 
especially  famous  for  his  controversy  with  lamblichus  regarding  the 
practice  of  Theurgy,  but  was,  however,  finally  converted  to  the  views 
of  his  opponent.  A  natural-born  mystic,  he  followed,  like  his  master 
Plotinus,  the  pure  Indian  Raja  Yoga  system  which,  by  training,  leads 
to  the  union  of  the  soul  with  the  over-soul  of  the  universe,  and  of  the 
human  with  its  divine  soul,  Buddhi-Manas.  He  complains,  however, 
that  in  spite  of  all  his  eflforts  he  reached  the  highest  state  of  ecstasy 
only  once,  and  that  when  he  was  sixty-eight  years  of  age,  while  his 
teacher  Plotinus  had  experienced  the  supreme  bliss  six  times  during 
his  life. 


348  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Pot  Amun.  A  Coptic  term  meaning  "  one  consecrated  to  the  god  Amun," 
the  Wisdom-god.  The  name  of  an  Egyptian  priest  and  Occultist 
under  the  Ptolemies. 

Prajna  {Sans.).  A  term  used  to  indicate  the  "universal  mind."  A  syn- 
onym of  mahat. 

Pralaya  (Sans.).  Dissolution,  the  opposite  of  manvantara,  one  being  the 
period  of  rest  and  the  other  of  full  activity  (death  and  life)  of  a 
planet,  or  of  the  whole  universe. 

pRANA  (Sans.).     Life-principle,  the  breath  of  life,  nephesh. 

Protean  Soul.  A  name  for  the  mayavi  rupa  or  thought-body,  the  higher 
astral  form  which  assumes  all  forms  and  every  form,  at  the  will  of 
an  Adept's  thought. 

PsYCHiSM.  The  word  is  now  used  to  denote  every  kind  of  mental  phen- 
omena, e.  g.,  mediumship  as  well  as  the  highest  form  of  sensitiveness. 
A  newly  coined  word. 

PuRANAS  (Sans.).  Lit.,  "the  ancient,"  referring  to  Hindii  mythological 
writings  or  scriptures,  of  which  there  is  a  considerable  number. 

Pythagoras.  The  most  famous  Greek  mystic  philosopher,  born  at  Samos 
about  586  b,  c,  who  taught  the  heliocentric  system  and  Reincarnation, 
the  highest  mathematics  and  the  highest  metaphysics,  and  who  had 
a  school   famous  throughout  the  world. 


Quaternary.  The  four  lower  "principles"  in  man.  those  which  constitute 
his  personality  (i.  e.,  body,  astral  double,  prana  or  life,  organs  of 
desire,  and  lower  manas  or  brain-mind),  as  distinguished  from  the 
higher  ternary  or  triad,  composed  of  the  higher  Spiritual  Soul,  Mind, 
and  Atma  (Higher  Self). 


THE    KEY   TO    THEOSOPHY  349 

R 

Recollection,  Remembrance,  Reminiscence.  Occultists  make  a  differ- 
ence between  these  three  functions.  As,  however,  a  glossary  cannot 
contain  the  full  explanation  of  every  term  in  all  its  metaphysical  and 
subtle  differences,  we  can  only  state  here  that  these  terms  vary  in  their 
applications,  according  to  whether  they  relate  to  the  past  or  the  present 
birth,  and  whether  one  or  the  other  of  these  phases  of  memory  eman- 
ates from  the  spiritual  or  the  material  brain,  or,  again,  from  the  "in- 
dividuality" or  the  "personality." 

Reincarnation,  or  Rebirth.  The  once  universal  doctrine  which  taught 
that  the  Ego  is  born  on  this  earth  an  innumerable  number  of  times. 
Nowadays  it  is  denied  by  Christians,  who  seem  to  misunderstand  the 
teachings  of  their  own  Gospels.  Nevertheless  the  putting  on  of  flesh 
periodically  and  throughout  long  cycles  by  the  higher  human  soul  (Bud- 
dhi-Manas)  or  Ego  is  taught  in  the  Bible,  as  it  is  in  all  other  ancient 
scriptures,  and  "resurrection"  means  only  the  rebirth  of  the  Ego  in 
another  form. 

Reuchlin,  John.  A  great  German  philosopher  and  philologist,  Kabalist 
and  scholar.  He  was  born  at  Pforzheim,  in  Germany,  in  1455,  and 
early  in  youth  was  a  diplomat.  At  one  period  of  his  life  he  held  the 
high  office  of  judge  of  the  tribunal  at  Tiibingen,  where  he  remained  for 
eleven  years.  He  was  the  preceptor  of  Melanchthon,  and  was  greatly 
persecuted  by  the  clergy  for  his  glorification  of  the  Hebrew  Kabalah, 
though  at  the  same  time  called  the  "  Father  of  the  Reformation."  He 
died  in  1522,  in  great  poverty,  the  common  fate  of  all  who  in  those 
days  went  against  the  dead  letter  of  the  church. 


s 

Sacred  Science.  The  epithet  given  to  the  occult  sciences  in  general,  and 
by  the  Rosicrucians  to  the  Kabalah,  and  especially  to  the  Hermetic 
philosophy. 


350  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Samadhi  {Sans).  The  name  in  India  for  spiritual  ecstasy.  It  is  a  state 
of  complete  trance,  induced  by  means  of  mystic  concentration. 

Samkhara  (Pali).  One  of  the  five  Buddhist  skandhas  or  attributes. 
"  Tendencies  of  mind." 

Samma  Sambuddha  (Pali).  The  sudden  remembrance  of  all  one's  past 
incarnations,  a  phenomenon  of  memory  obtained  through  Yoga.  A 
Buddhist  mystic  term. 

Samothrace.  An  island  in  the  Grecian  Archipelago,  famous  in  days  of  old 
for  the  Mysteries  celebrated  in  its  temples.  These  Mysteries  were 
world-renowned. 

SamyuTTaka  Nikaya  (Pali).     One  of  the  Buddhist  siitras. 

Sanna  (Pali).  One  of  the  five  skandhas  or  attributes,  meaning  "abstract 
ideas." 

Seance.  A  term  now  used  to  denote  a  sitting  with  a  medium  for  sundry 
phenomena.      Used   chiefly   among   the    Spiritualists. 

Self.  There  are  two  Selves  in  men  —  the  higher  and  the  lower,  the  im- 
personal and  the  personal  Self.  One  is  divine,  the  other  semi-animal. 
A  great  distinction  should  be  made  between  the  two. 

Sephiroth.  a  Hebrew  Kabalistic  word  for  the  ten  divine  emanations 
from  Ain  Suph,  the  impersonal,  universal  principle,  or  Deity. 

Skandhas.  The  attributes  of  every  personality,  which  after  death  form 
the  basis,  so  to  say,  for  a  new  karmic  reincarnation.  They  are  five 
in  the  popular  or  exoteric  system  of  the  Buddhists :  i.  e.,  rupa,  form  or 
body,  which  leaves  behind  it  its  magnetic  atoms  and  occult  affinities; 
veddna,  sensations,  which  do  likewise;  sannd,  or  abstract  ideas,  which 
are  the  creative  powers  at  work  from  one  incarnation  to  another; 
satnkhdra,  tendencies  of  mind ;  and  vinndna,  mental  powers. 

SoMNAMBUUSM.  "  Sleep-walking  " ;  a  psycho-physiological  state  too  well 
known  to  need  explanation. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  351 

Spiritism.  The  same  as  the  following,  with  the  difference  that  the  Spirit- 
uaUsts  almost  unanimously  reject  the  doctrine  of  Reincarnation,  while 
the  Spiritists  make  of  it  the  fundamental  principle  in  their  belief. 
There  is,  however,  a  vast  difference  between  the  views  of  the  latter 
and  the  philosophical  teachings  of  Eastern  Occultists.  Spiritists  belong 
to  the  French  school  founded  by  Allan  Kardec,  and  the  Spiritualists  of 
America  and  England  to  that  of  the  "  Fox  girls,"  who  inaugurated 
their  theories  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.  Theosophists,  while  holding  that 
the  mediumistic  phenomena  of  both  Spiritualists  and  Spiritists  do 
occur,  reject  the  idea  of  "spirits." 

Spiritualism.  The  modern  belief  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  return  on 
earth  to  commune  with  the  living. 

St.  Germain,  Count.  A  mysterious  personage,  who  appeared  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
in  France,  England,  and  elsewhere. 

Sthula  Sharira  {Sans.).  The  human  physical  body  in  Occultism  and 
Vedantic  philosophy. 

Sthulopadhi  {Sans.).  The  physical  body  in  its  waking,  conscious  state 
{jagrat). 

SuKSHMOPADHi  {SoHS.).  The  physical  body  in  the  dreaming  state 
{svapna),  and  karanopadhi,  the  "causal  body."  These  terms  belong 
to  the  teachings  of  the  Taraka  Raja  Yoga  school. 

Summer-land.  The  fancy  name  given  by  the  Spiritualists  to  the  abode 
of  their  disembodied  "  spirits,"  which  they  locate  somewhere  in  the 
Milky  Way.  It  is  described  on  the  authority  of  returning  "  spirits," 
as  a  lovely  land,  having  beautiful  cities  and  buildings,  a  congress 
hall,  museums,  etc.,  etc. 

SwEDENBORG,  Emanuel.  A  famous  scholar  and  clairvoyant  of  the 
past  century,  a  man  of  great  learning,  who  had  vastly  contributed  to 
science,  but  whose  Mysticism  and  transcendental  philosophy  placed  him 
in  the  ranks  of  hallucinated  visionaries.     He  is  now  universally  known 


352  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

as  the  founder  of  the  Swedenborgian  sect,  or  the  New  Jerusalem 
Church.  He  was  born  at  Stockholm  (Sweden)  in  1688,  from  Luth- 
eran parents,  his  father  being  the  Bishop  of  West  Gothland.  His 
original  name  was  Swedberg,  but  on  his  being  ennobled  and  knighted 
in  1719  it  was  changed  to  Swedenborg.  He  became  a  mystic  in  1743, 
and  four  years  later  (in  1747)  resigned  his  office  (of  Assessor  Extra- 
ordinary to  the  College  of  Mines)  and  gave  himself  up  entirely  to 
Mysticism.     He  died  in  1772. 


Taijasa  {Sans.).  From  tejas,  fire;  meaning  the  "radiant,"  the  "lumin- 
ous ;"  referring  to  the  manasa-rupa,  "  the  body  of  manas,"  also  to  the 
stars  and  the  starlike  shining  envelopes.  A  term  in  Vedantic  phil- 
osophy, having  other  meanings  besides  the  occult  signification  just 
given. 

Taraka  Raja  Yoga  {Sans.).  One  of  the  Brahmanical  Yoga  systems,  the 
most  philosophical  and,  in  fact,  the  most  secret  of  all,  as  its  real  tenets 
are  never  given  out  publicly.  It  is  a  purely  intellectual  and  spiritual 
school  of  training. 

Tetragrammaton  {Gr.).  The  deity-name  in  four  letters,  which  are  in 
their  English  form  IHVH.  It  is  a  Kabalistic  term,  and  corresponds 
on  a  more  material  plane  to  the  sacred  Pythagorean  tetraktys. 

Theodidaktos  {Gr.).  The  "God-taught,"  a  title  applied  to  Ammonius 
Saccas. 

Theogony.     From  the  Greek  theogonia,  lit.,  the  "  genesis  of  the  gods." 

ThEOSOphia    {Gr.).   Lit,  "divine  wisdom  or  wisdom  of  the  gods." 

Therapeut.^,  or  Therapeuts  {Gr.).  A  school  of  Jewish  mystic  healers 
or  esotericists,  wrongly  referred  to  by  some  as  a  sect.  They  resided 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY  353 

in  and  near  Alexandria,  and  their  doings  and  beliefs  are  to  this  day 
a  mystery  to  the  critics,  as  their  philosophy  seems  a  combination  of 
Orphic,  Pythagorean,  Essenian,  and  purely  Kabalistic  practices. 

Theurgy.  From  the  Greek  thcionrgia.  Rites  for  bringing  down  to  earth 
planetary  and  other  spirits  or  gods.  To  arrive  at  the  realization  of 
such  an  object  the  Theurgist  had  to  be  absolutely  pure  and  unselfish 
in  his  motives.  The  practice  of  Theurgy  is  very  undesirable  and  even 
dangerous  in  the  present  day.  The  world  has  become  too  corrupt  and 
wicked  for  the  practice  of  that  which  such  holy  and  learned  men  as 
Ammonius,  Plotinus,  Porphyry  and  lamblichus  (the  most  learned  The- 
urgist of  all)  could  alone  attempt  with  impunity.  In  our  day  Theurgy, 
or  divine,  beneficent  magic,  is  but  too  apt  to  become  goetic  or,  in  other 
words,  sorcery.  Theurgy  is  the  first  of  the  three  subdivisions  of  magic, 
which  are  theurgic,  goetic  and  natural  magic. 

Thread  Soul.    The  same  as  sutratma,  which  see  under  "  Manas-siitratma." 

Thumos  {Gr.).  A  Pythagorean  and  Platonic  term;  applied  to  an  aspect 
of  the  human  soul,  to  denote  its  passionate  kama-riipic  condition ; 
almost  equivalent  to  the  Sanskrit  word  tamas,  the  quality  of  darkness, 
and  probably  derived  from  the  latter. 

Tim^us  of  Locris.  a  Pythagorean  philosopher,  born  at  Locris.  He 
dififered  somewhat  from  his  teacher  in  the  doctrine  of  metempsy- 
chosis. He  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  Soul  of  the  World  and  its  nature 
and  essence,  which  is  in  the  Doric  dialect  and  still  extant. 

Triad,  or  Trinity.     In  every  religion  and  philosophy,  the  three  in  one. 


u 

Universal   Brotherhood.     The   principal   purpose   of   the   Theosophical 
Movement.* 

*  See  footnotes  11  and  60. 


354  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Upadhi  {Sans.).  Basis  of  something,  substructure;  as  in  Occultism  sub- 
stance is  the  upadhi  of  spirit. 

Upanishad  {Sans.).  Lit.,  "esoteric  doctrine."  The  third  division  of 
the  Vedas,  and  classed  with  revelation  {shruti  or  "revealed  word"). 
Some  one  hundred  and  fifty  or  even  two  hundred  of  the  Upanishads 
still  remain  extant,  though  no  more  than  about  twelve  can  be  fully 
relied  upon  as  free  from  falsification.  These  twelve  are  all  earlier 
than  the  sixth  century  b.  c.  Like  the  Kabalah,  which  interprets  the 
esoteric  sense  of  the  Bible,  so  the  Upanishads  explain  the  mystic  sense 
of  the  Vedas.  Professor  Cowell  has  two  statements  regarding  the 
Upanishads,  as  interesting  as  they  are  correct.  Thus  he  says :  ( 1 ) 
These  works  have  "  one  remarkable  peculiarity,  the  total  absence  of 
any  Brahmanical  exclusiveness  in  their  doctrine.  .  .  .  They  breathe 
an  entirely  different  spirit,  a  freedom  of  thought  unknown  in  any 
earlier  work  except  the  Rig  Veda  hymns  themselves;"  and  (2)  "the 
great  teachers  of  the  higher  knowledge  [gupta-vidya],  and  Brahmans, 
are  continually  represented  as  going  to  Kshatriya  kings  to  become 
their  pupils  [chelas]."  This  shows  conclusively  that  {a)  the  Upani- 
shads were  written  before  the  enforcement  of  caste  and  Brahmanical 
power,  and  are  thus  only  second  in  antiquity  to  the  Vedas;  and  {h) 
that  the  occult  sciences,  or  the  "  higher  knowledge,"  as  Cowell  puts  it, 
are  far  older  than  the  Brahmans  in  India  or,  at  any  rate,  than  the 
caste  system.  The  Upanishads  are,  however,  far  later  than  the  gupta- 
indya,  or  the  "  secret  science,"  which  is  as  old  as  human  philosophical 
thought  itself. 


V 

Vahan    {Sans.).     "Vehicle."     A  synonym  of   upadhi. 

Vallabacharyas  {Sans.).  The  "sect  of  the  Maharajas";  a  licentious 
phallic-worshiping  community,  whose  main  branch  is  at  Bombay.  The 
object  of  the  worship  is  the  infant  Krishna.     The  Anglo-Indian  gov- 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY  355 

ernment  has  been  compelled  several  times  to  interfere  in  order  to  put 
a  stop  to  its  rites  and  vile  practices,  and  its  governing  Maharaja,  a 
kind  of  high  priest,  was  more  than  once  imprisoned,  and  very  justly  so. 
It  is  one  of  the  blackest  spots  of  India. 

Vedanta  {Sans.).  Meaning,  literally,  the  "end  of  [all]  knowledge." 
Among  the  six  darshanas  or  schools  of  philosophy  it  is  also  called 
Uttaramimansa,  or  the  "  later  "  Mimansa.  There  are  those  who.  un- 
able to  understand  its  esotericism,  consider  it  atheistical;  but  this  is 
not  so,  as  Shankaracharya,  the  great  apostle  of  this  school,  and  its 
popularizer,  was  one  of  the  greatest  mystics  and  Adepts  of  India. 

ViDYA    (Sans.).     Knowledge,   or   rather   "wisdom-knowledge." 

ViNNANA  (Pali).  One  of  the  five  skandhas;  meaning,  esoterically,  "men- 
tal powers." 


w 

Wisdom-Religion.     The   same   as   Theosophy.     The   name  given   to   the 
secret  doctrine  which  underlies  every  exoteric  scripture  and  religion. 


Y 

Yoga  (Sans.).  A  school  of  philosophy  founded  by  Patanjali,  but  which 
existed  as  a  distinct  teaching  and  system  of  life  long  before  that  sage. 
It  is  Yajnavalkya,  a  famous  and  very  ancient  sage,  to  whom  the  IVhite 
Yajur  Veda,  the  Shafapatha  Brahmana  and  the  Brihad  Aranyaka  are 
attributed,  and  who  lived  in  pre-Mahabharatean  times,  who  is  credited 
with  inculcating  the  necessity  and  positive  duty  of  religious  meditation 
and  retirement  into  the  forests,  and  who  therefore  is  believed  to  have 
originated  the  Yoga  doctrine.  Professor  Max  Miiller  states  that  it  is 
Yajnavalkya  who  prepared  the  world  for  the  preaching  of  Buddhism. 


356  THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 

Patanjali's  Yoga,  however,  is  more  definite  and  precise  as  a  philo- 
sophy, and  embodies  more  of  the  occult  sciences  than  any  of  the 
works  attributed  to  Yajnavalkya. 

YoGi,  or  Yogin  (Sans.).  A  devotee,  one  who  practices  the  Yoga  system. 
There  are  various  grades  and  kinds  of  Yogis  and  the  term  has  now 
become  in  India  a  generic  name  to  designate  every  kind  of  ascetic. 

YuGA  (Sans.).  An  age  of  the  world,  of  which  there  are  four,  which 
follow  each  other  in  a  series,  namely,  krita  (or  satya)  yuga,  the  golden 
age;  treta  yuga,  dvapara  yuga  and  finally  kali  yuga,  the  black  age 
—  in  which  we  now  are. 


Zenobia.  The  queen  of  Palmyra,  defeated  by  the  Emperor  Aurelianus. 
She  had  for  her  instructor  Longinus,  the  famous  critic  and  logician 
in  the  third  century  a.  d. 

Zivo,  Kabar  or  lu-Kabar.  The  name  of  one  of  the  creative  deities  in  the 
Nazarene  Codex. 

ZoHAR  (Heb.).  The  Book  of  "Splendor,"  a  Kabalistic  work  attributed 
to  Simeon  ben-Iochai,  in  the  first  century  of  our  era. 

ZoROASTRiAN.  One  who  follows  the  religion  of  the  Parsis,  sun  or  fire 
worshipers. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abammon,  4. 

Absolute,   3,   45,   61,   62,   64,   65,   67,   70, 

82,  84,  91,  105,  117,  171,  198,  207. 
Absolute  consciousness,  64,  99. 
Absolute  harmony,    109,  207. 
Absolute  impartiality,  110. 
Absolute  justice,   108,   110,   139. 
Absolute  law,   65,   84. 
Absolute  logic,  109. 
Absolute  love,    110. 
Absolute  nothing,   115. 
Absolute  oblivion,   147. 
Absolute  Principle,  66. 
Absolute  Spirit,    67,    113. 
Absolute  unity,  82,  153. 
Absolute  wisdom,  108,  110. 
Absoluteness,  62,  64,   89. 
Absorption,   112,   113. 
Abstract,   56,  66,   154. 
Abstract  Spirit,  67. 
Abstractions,    127,    128,    175. 
Academy,    philosophers    of    the,    7. 
Accident,    121. 
Accumulated    misery,    201. 
Act,    208. 
Action,  46,  47,  66,  70,   71,  201,  202,  205, 

207,  208,  220,  224,  226,  230,  233. 
Actor,   34,    130,    166,   181. 
Acts,   112. 


Adam,    107,    184. 

Adam    Kadmon,    184. 

Adepts,   3,   22,   23,   24,   25,    147,    150,    197, 

211,   212,   213,   214,   275,   277,   280,   283, 

290,  291. 
Adjustment,    198,    200,    207. 
Adultery,    75,    76. 
Aebel  Zivo,  184. 
^ther,    104. 

Affection,   spiritual,    149. 
After-life,    159,    168.     (.S"^^    Post-mortem 

life) 
Age,  Golden,    59. 
Age,  unspiritual,  38. 
Aged  of  the  Aged,  184. 
Agnoia,  94.    (See  Anoia) 
Agnostic    Journal,    44,    274. 
Agnostics,  94,  217,  265,  266. 
Ahamkara,  134. 
Ain  Suph,  62. 
Alchemists,    2,    275. 
Alchemy,  22,  24,  26,  37. 
Alexandria,    5. 

Alexandrian  philosophers,   2,   7,  9,    104. 
All,  33,  63,  82,  83,  105,  113,  117,  120,  180. 
Allegory,  77. 
Alphabets,    10,    24. 
Altruism,  21,  53,  78,  235,  247,  266. 
Ambition,   25. 
Amelioration,    231. 


360 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


America,   294. 

America,  ethnological  treasures  of,   18. 

Americans,    14. 

American    spiritualists,    146. 

Ammonius    Saccas,    2,    3,    4,    5,    6,    7,    8, 

9,   10,  24,   125. 
Amun,   2. 
Analogeticists,   2. 
Analogy,    2. 
Ananda,   15,  79,  80. 
Anaxagoras,   93. 
Angels,   103,   177,   182. 
Anima  bruta,   105. 
Anima  divina,     105. 
Anima  mundi,    104,    105. 
Animal  characteristics,  256. 
Animal  desires,  90,   119,   173,   181. 
Animal  flesh,  256. 
Animal  food,    256. 

Animal  instincts,    91,    117,    173,    177. 
Animal  intelligence,    143. 
Animal-minded  man,   119. 
Animal  passions,   71,  90,  91,  95,  96,   119, 

126,    173,    181. 
Animal  plane,    143. 
Animal  soul,    89,    91,    92,    101,    105,    114, 

120,   142,   152,   156. 
Animal  tissue,  256. 
Animalizing   effect,   256. 
Animals,    102,    103,    113,    123,    142. 
Annihilation,    79,    92,    93,    102,    112,    113 

114,    154,    161,    163,   167,    168,    183,   185, 

187,  215. 
Anoia,  92,  114.    (5"^^  Agnoia) 
Anthropomorphic  God,  61,  63,   109. 
Anthropomorphism,    36,   67,   81,    102. 
Anugtta,  67. 

Apollonius    of    Tyana,    12,    18,   25. 
Arabia,    Hierophants    of,    37. 
Arcane   Section  of  Theosophical  Society, 

38. 
Archaic  doctrine,  60,  89,  114. 


Archaic  knowledge,    37. 

Archaic  philosophy,   93. 

Arhats,   14,   16,  78. 

Aristobulus,    6. 

Aristotle,   6,    105. 

Arnold,   Edwin,  210. 

Art  Magic  and  Ghost  Land,  290,  291. 

Aryan   philosophy,  41,  45. 

Asceticism,    254,    255,    256. 

Ascetics,    254,    255. 

Asiatic  literature,  41. 

Aspiration,  68,  223. 

Association  of  ideas,  123,  126. 

Astral  body,  29,  90,  93,  94,  142,  160.    {See 

Double) 
Astral  capsule,  101,  102,   129. 
Astral  eidolons,  142. 
Astral  entity,  143. 
Astral  inner  man,  129,  179,  205. 
Astral  life,    150. 
Astral  locality,  142. 
Astral  principles,  101. 
Astral  particles,    142. 
Astral  remains,  29. 
Astral  shadow,  96. 
Astral  soul,  104. 
Astrology,  23,  26,  97. 
Atheism,  79. 

Atheists,  62,  63,  73,  207,  265,  266. 
Athenagoras,  6,  7. 
Athenians,  97. 
Atma,  67,  91,  92,  95,   101,   102,   106,   114, 

116,    117,    120,   130,   133,    134,    156,    171, 

172,    173,   178,    183,    185. 
Atma-Buddhi,  91,  92,  94,  105,  112,  114,  120. 
Atma-Buddhi-Manas,  71,  142. 
Atma-Buddhic  light,  68. 
Atma-Buddhic  monad,  128. 
Atman,  67,  100,  112,  120,  171. 
Atmic  elements,  97. 
Atmic  vehicle,  \72. 
Atom,  64,  83. 


THE    KBY    TO    THEO SOPHY 


361 


Atonement,  104,  196,  203,  205,  209,  218,  219. 

Attributes,  65,  77,  101,  118,  128,  158,  159. 

Aura,  153. 

Authority,  48,  216,  218,  270,  288. 

Avatara,  177. 

Axiomatic  truth,  47. 

B 

Babylon,  Rabbis  of,  5. 

Bactria,  Sages  of,  4. 

Balance  of  National  Karma,  200. 

Banner  of  Light,  146. 

Becoming,  Ever-,  65. 

Being,  63,  65,  166,  168,  178,  180. 

Belief,  163,  164,  168,  216,  218. 

Belief  and  unbelief,  efifect  of,  163,  164,  168. 

Belittlement,  habit  ol,   18. 

Be-ness,  65,  113. 

Bhagavad  Gita,  49,  67.  171. 

Bible,  8,  27,  42,  68,  102,  107,  110,  112,  266. 

Bigandet,  Bishop,  73. 

Bigotry,  48. 

Birth,   {see  Rebirth). 

Bishop,  Washington   Irving,   191. 

Black  Brotherhood,  280. 

Black  magic,  3,  22,  23,  26,  68,  102,  281. 

Blavatsky,  H.  P.,  17,  19,  50,  204,  271,  279, 

283,  285,  286,  287,  288. 
Blind  faith,  {see  Faith). 
Bliss,  35,  70,  98,  99,   136,   138,   144,    145, 

146,  147,  150,  159,  160. 
Blood,  184,  219. 
Blood  of  Christ,  196,  218. 
Board-schools,  261. 
Bodha,  14. 

Body,  {see  Physical  body). 
Body,  celestial,  90,  135. 
Body,  terrestrial,   135,    ISO. 
Bohme,  Jakob,  4,  19.  23. 
Book  of  the  Keys,  107. 
Brahma,  171. 
Brahma,  83,  157. 


Brahma-Vidya,  2. 

Brahmanas,  80. 

Brahmans,  10,  14,  15,  63,  79,  217,  219. 

Brahmic  pralaya,  103. 

Brain,  67,  90,  123,  124,  126,  127,  129,  143, 
151,  175,  176,  181,  187. 

Brain-intellect,   96. 

Brain-stufF,  262. 

Breath,  94,  96,  98,  105,  113,  182. 

Britten,  Mrs.  E.  H.,  290. 

Brotherhood,  {see  Universal  Brother- 
hood). 

Brothers,  Elder,  18,  19. 

Brothers  of  the  Shadow,  280. 

Brown-Sequard,  Dr.,  281. 

Brutality,  231. 

Brutes,  {sec  Animals). 

Buddha,  8,  14,  15,  16,  18,  47,  49,  70,  77, 
78,  79,  80,  81,  112,  196,  224,  233. 

Buddhas,  150,  162,  184. 

Buddhi,  67,  91,  92,  95,  97,  100,  101,  105, 
114,  118,  119,  120,  134,  154,  157,  158, 
161,  165,  172,  175,  181,  183,  184,  185, 
186,   187. 

Buddhi-Manas,  106,  120,  132,  157,  158,  172. 

Buddhi-Taijasa,    163. 

Buddhic  radiance,  171. 

Buddhism,  5,  10,  14,  15,  16,  17,  19,  45, 
73,  76,  77,  79,  81,  113,  115,  128,  197,  243. 

Buddhist  precepts,  240. 

Buddhist  texts,  112,  114,  196. 

Buddhists,  14,  16,  73,  74,  77,  78,  100,  111, 
188,  195,  196,  217,  218,  219,  224,  241, 
242,  243. 

Budhism,  14,  77. 

Butler,  125. 


Cadaver,  116. 
Cagliostro,   19. 
Calumny,  272,  273,  283. 
Cant,  48,  226. 


362 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 


Carlyle,  226. 

Caste,  293. 

Causal  body,  116,  120,  134,  171. 

Causation,  229,  230,  233. 

Cause,  Causes,  63,  176,  187,  198,  204,  207, 

208,  220,  229,  231. 
Celestial  body,  135,  138. 
Celibacy,  254. 
Central  Asia,  9. 

Centrifugal    spiritual    energy,    186. 
Centripetal   spiritual  energy,   186. 
Century  Path,  39. 
Ceremonial  magic,  3. 
Ceylon,  73,  79. 
Chain,  87. 

Chaldaea,  Hierophants  of,  37. 
Chaldees,  24. 
Change,  76,  117,  158. 
Character,  231,  262. 

Charges  against   Madame  Blavatsky,  283. 
Charity,  45,  53,  54,  78,  237,  238,  240,  244, 

245,  246,  266. 
Charity  of  mind,  238,  246. 
Chelas,  118,  291. 
Chemistry,  24. 
Children,  260,  261. 
China,  19,  234. 
Chinese  Buddhism,  15. 
Christ,   {see  Jesus  Christ)  . 
Christendom,  73,  200. 
Christian  Church,  36,  55,  81,  108,  239,  260, 

288. 
Christian  College  Magazine,  270. 
Christian  duties,  224,  238. 
Christian  fathers,  112. 
Christian  savages,  235. 
Christian  Scientists,  72. 
Christian  theology,    36,    75,    93,    154,    181, 

195,  209,  214. 
Christianity,  4,  6,  27,  54,  55,  72,  73,  78,  79, 

112,  153,  183,  218,  220,  225,  226,  274. 
Christians,   54,  55,  61,  68,  69,  70,  71,  72, 


7\  77,  103,  104,  169,  185,  186,  195,  196, 

217,  219,  225,  226,  238,  242. 
Christos,  67,  71,  154,  183,  184. 
Civilization,    17,   242. 
Ciphers,  secret,  10. 
Clairvoyance,  211. 
Classes  in  society,  199. 
Clemens  Alexandrinus,  4,  37. 
Clement,  6,  7. 
Clergy,  270. 

Coarsening  effect  of   flesh-eating,  256. 
Codex  Nasarceus,  184. 
Cogitation,  181. 
Coleridge,  135. 
Collective  suffering,  200. 
Commandments,  75. 
Common  origin  of  man,  45. 
Common  origin  of  religions,  45. 
Communications   with    spirits,   28,   29,   31, 

144,  149,  150,  152,  189,  190,  191,  192,  193. 
Companions,  work  of,  18. 
Compassion,  212. 
Compensation,    179,  205. 
Concealed  Deity,  111. 
Concrete,  56. 
Confucius,  8,  19,  48,  235. 
Conscience,  135,  185,  236,  246. 
Conscious  immortality,    163. 
Conscious  life,  163. 
Conscious  soul,    148. 
Consciousness,  30,  34,  64,  67,  84,  87,  88, 

91,  92,  93,  97,  98,  99,  106,  107,  117,  119, 

120,    132,   134,    135,    145,    150,    153,   155, 

156,    157,    158,    159,    161,    163,    167,    170, 

171,   174,   175,   176,   177,  215. 
Contemplation,   (see  Meditation). 
Continuity,  156,   157. 
Contrast,  282. 

Conventional   religions,   failure  of,  36. 
Co-operation,  229. 
Correlation  of  forces,  101. 
Correspondences,  2,  96. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


363 


Cosmical  ocean,  104. 

Cosmos,  64,  84,  94. 

Court  of  law,  54,  285. 

Creation,  62,  63,  82,  83,  109,  182,  184. 

Creative  force,  68. 

Creator,  61,  62,  63. 

Credulity,  216. 

Creed,   Theosophical   Society   has   no,   20, 

57,  59. 
Creeds,  36,  58,  219,  293. 
Crime,  73,  220,  221,  242,  243,  262,  288. 
Cup  of  life,  225. 
Custodians  of  truth,  36. 
Cycle  of  being,  63. 
Cycle  of  incarnations,    35,    147,    158,    165, 

178,  179,  194. 
Cycle  of  life,   83,   99,    106,    109,    113,    185, 

194. 
Cycle  of  necessity,    166. 
Cyclic  law,   18. 
Cyclic  rest,   150. 
Cyclic  migrations,  111. 

D 

Daily  life,  {see  Life). 

Damien,  Father,  234,  235. 

Damnation,  77,  136,  138,  146,  235,  239. 

Dangers  of  intercourse  with  spirits,  189," 
190,   191,   192. 

Dangers  of  psychic  unfolding,  294. 

Darkness,  64,  84,   111. 

Darwinists,  44. 

David,  68. 

Days  and  Nights  of  Brahma,  83. 

Dead,  146. 

Dead  letter,  13,  16,  43,  54,  69,  77,  81. 

Dear  departed  ones,  146,  148,   187,   191. 

Death,  12,  35,  79,  93,  97,  99,  102,  120,  126, 
145,  146,  149,  150,  156,  157,  159,  160, 
161,   162,    163,    165,   168,    186,  213. 

Deed,  139,  196,  201,  211. 

Defense   of   Theosophical   Society,   244. 


Deific  principle,  62,  63. 

Deists,  63. 

Deity,   3,    16,   64,   65,   67,   71,   91,   94,   95, 

97,  99,  110,  111,  112,  114,  154,  178,  196, 

204,  217,  219. 
Delusion,  147,  148. 
Demerit,  144,  197,  204. 
Demeter,  97. 
Democritus,  93. 
Demoniacal  wisdom,  90. 
Deniers,  72. 

Descent  of  spiritual  Ego,  154. 
Desires,  90,  129,  208,  258. 
Destiny,   153,   178,  179,  205,  209,  212,  221, 

236. 
Devachan,   29,   97,   98,   99,    103,    106,    107, 

128,    129,    132,    138,    139,    142,    144,    145, 

146,    147,    149,    150,    152,    154.    155,    161, 

167,    168,    174,    181,    185,    186,    188,    194, 

196,  212. 
Devachani,  145,  147,  149. 
Devas,  69. 
Development,  53.   154,  228,  230,  231,  232, 

235,  256,  257,  267,  278,  293. 
Devils,  69. 
Devotion,  281,  292. 
Dhamma,  80. 
Dhammapada,  74. 
Dharma,  210. 
Dhyan  Chohans,  157,  166. 
Dhyana,  113. 

Difference  between  men  and  animals,  103. 
Diogenes  Laertius,  2. 
Discord,  294. 
Discretion,  250. 
Discrimination,  233. 
Disease,  191,  257. 
Disembodied  entity,  102,  138. 
Disembodied  soul,  29,  30,  169. 
Disembodied  spirits,  31,  149,   188. 
Disharmony,  201,  202. 
Disintegration    of    principles.   98,    126. 


364 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV 


Distributive  Karma,  199. 

Divine  being,   1,  166. 

Divine  consciousness,    119. 

Divine  Ego,  77,  92,  104,  166,  172. 

Divine  essence,  11,  44,  67,  100,  120,  214. 

Divine  excellence,  114. 

Divine  fire,  178. 

Divine  justice,  121. 

Divine  knowledge,  1,  2,  13. 

Divine  light,  54. 

Divine  love,  149. 

Divine  man,   120,  174. 

Divine  mind,   180. 

Divine  nature,   57. 

Divine  powers,  178. 

Divine  principle,  63,   109,   116,   133,   153. 

Divine  root,  171. 

Divine  science,  2,  37. 

Divine  secrets,  13. 

Divine  Self,  52. 

Divine  soul,  118,  153,  157,  158. 

Divine  spirit,  72,  92,  100. 

Divine  substance,  91. 

Divine  transfiguration,  93, 

Divine  triad,  181. 

Divine  Wisdom,  1,  4,  56. 

Divinity,  171,  213,  239. 

Doctrines  of  Theosophy,  61,  109,  124,  214, 

229,  230,  244. 
Dogma,  13,  15,  57,  75,  104,  108,  109,  182, 

211,   214,   216,   219,   220,   221,   293. 
Double,  29,  90,  95,  117,  118,  119,  142,  173. 
Dreaming  state,   116. 
Dreamless  sleep,  160,  163,  164,  168. 
Dreams.  4,  31,  88,  149,  162,  163,  168,  169. 
Drugs,  258. 
Duad,  134. 

Dual  Manas,  92,  157,  172,  175. 
Dual  monad,  91,  120,  134. 
Duality.  89,  92,  107,  170,  175,  180. 
Dugpas,  281,  283. 
Duty,  45,  48,  49,  213,  223,  224,  225,  226, 


227,  228,  230,  231,  235,  236,   237,  238, 
246,  247,  248,  250,  293. 


Earlier  Theosophical   Movements,  294. 
Earth,   84,   85,   87,   96,   97,   98,    101,    110, 

136,  139. 
Earth  chain,  87. 

Earth  life,  34,  121,  132,  147,  154,  155, 
163,  164,  165,  166,  167,  169,  174,  175, 
176,  212. 

Eastern  philosophy,  30,   106,   115,  204. 

Eastern  school,  115,  157. 

Eastern  teachings,  101,  128,  169,  188,  243. 

Eastern  terms,  English  equivalents  for, 
172. 

Eastern  wisdom,  88. 

Eclectic  Theosophical  system,  2,  4. 

Ecstasy,  4,  11,  12,  70,  125. 

Edinburgh  Encyclopedia,  6. 

Edkins,  Rev.  J.,  15. 

Education,  42,  45,  241,  259,  260,  261,  262, 
263,  264,  266,  267. 

Effect,  153,  208,  230. 

Efficacy  of  Theosophy,  42. 

Efflorescence,  spiritual,  186. 

Eglinton,   191. 

Ego,  29,  31,  34,  35,  67,  68,  77,  79,  80, 
91,  92,  93,  94,  95,  97,  98,  99,  100,  102, 
103,  104,  105,  106,  107,  109,  110,  111, 
114,  115,  117,  118,  119,  120,  124,  127, 
128,    130,    131,    132,    133,    134,    135,    136, 

137,  138,  139,  140,  141,  144,  145,  146, 
149,  152,  153,  154,  155,  157,  159,  160, 
161,  163,  164,  165,  166,  171,  172,  173, 
174,  176,  178,  179,  180,  181,  182,  183, 
184,   185,   187,   194,  236,  281. 

Egoist,  168. 
Egoity,  34. 
Egoship,  134. 
Egotism,  70,  208. 
Egypt,   18. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHV 


365 


Egypt,  Hierophants  of,   10,  37. 

Egyptian  doctrines,  7. 

Egyptian  system,  93. 

Egyptian  Therapeutae,   6. 

Egyptians,  5,  37,  93,  95. 

Eidolon,  95,  99,  126,  142. 

Elder  Brothers,  18,  19. 

Element,  97,  116. 

Elementals,  29,    188. 

Elementaries,    187. 

Eleusinian  Mysteries,   10,  37. 

Eleusinian  Mysteries,  196. 

Elevation  of  the  race,  230. 

Emanation,   62,   83,   84,   94,   97,    100,    101, 

104,   109,   115,   178,  213,  214. 
Emerson,  243. 
Empedocles,   105. 
Energy,  spiritual,   186. 
English  equivalents  for  Eastern  terms,  172. 
Enthusiasm,   125,  243. 
Entities,  98,  117,  137,  164,  180. 
Entity,   90,    102,    104,    105,    106,    113,    129, 

137,    143,    174,    176,    179,    180,    181,   195. 
Environment,    131,    137,    199. 
Epictetus,  237. 

Epilepsy,  a  symptom  of  mediumship,  192. 
Epistles,   112. 
Equilibrium,  186,  201,  219. 
Equity,  75,  153,  176,  196. 
Errors  of  nature,  217. 
Esoteric  Budhism,  77. 
Esoteric  doctrine,  7,  15,  103,  156,  243,  292. 
Esoteric  instructions,  21,  22,  25. 
Esoteric  philosophy,  21,  25,  60,  95. 
Esoteric  science,  96. 
Esoteric  Section  of  Theosophical  Society, 

20,  21,  38,  49,  59,  275. 
Esoteric  teachings,  6,  9,  14,  15,  78. 
Essence,  3,  11,  42,  44,  45,  65,  67,  70,  82, 

100,    102,    106,    107,    109,    113,   120,   164, 

171,   177,   180,  214. 
Essenes  of  Carmel,  6,  11. 


Essential  being,   114. 

Essential  existence,   114. 

Eternal  Ego,  140. 

Eternal  life,  168. 

Eternal  light,  111. 

Eternal  punishment,   108,  211. 

Eternal  reward,  108. 

Eternity,  82,   113,   118,   149,   158,   164,   165, 

166,  168,  176,  207,  209. 
Ether,   127. 
Ethics,  4,  5,  6,  15,  19,  25,  27,  38,  48,  224, 

225,  243. 
Eurasians,  72>. 
Europeans,  14. 
Ever-Becoming,  65. 
Everlasting  Truth,  292. 
Evil,  111,  177,  196,  199,  202,  206,  222,  224, 

231,  241,  242,  244,  250,  267. 
Evil  powers,  281. 
Evolution,  62,  64,  65,  83,  121,  231. 
Example,  244. 
Existence  after  death,   {sec  Post-mortem 

life). 
Existence,  objective,  115,  132. 
Existence,  spiritual,  223. 
Experience,  86,  180,  222,  223,  255. 
Ex-personality,  142. 
External  plane,  216. 
Extra-cosmic  God,   109. 
Eyes,  spiritual,  163. 


Faculties,  inner,  257,  294. 

Faculties,  rational,  113. 

Failure  of  earlier  Theosophical  move- 
ments, 293. 

Failures  of  nature,  168,  185,  195. 

Faith,  86,  196,  214,  215,  216,  217,  218, 
219,  281. 

Faith,  blind,  27,  48,  214,  215,  216,  266. 

Fakirs,  255. 

Fallen  angels,   137. 


366 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


Fall  of  spirit  into  matter,  178,  222. 

Family  duties,  236. 

Family  group,  149. 

Fanaticism,  235,  236,  257. 

Fancy,  79,  124,  125,  149. 

Fatal  necessity,  110. 

Fate,  98. 

Fate  of  lower  principles,   142. 

Father  in  heaven,  66,  67. 

Father  in  secret,  66,  70,  71,  81,   100,   178. 

Fear,  236. 

Felicity,  144,  147. 

Fetish-worship,  63,  79. 

Fever,  ravings  of,  124. 

Fifth  race,  194. 

Final  goal,  166,  221,  223, 

Final  perfection,   195. 

Final  rest,  195. 

Finite,  87,  111. 

Fire,  105,  178. 

Fire-philosophers,  37,  105. 

Five  principles,  116. 

Flesh,  137,  180. 

Flesh  of  animals,  256,  257,  258. 

Folk-lore,  48. 

Forbearance,  246. 

Force,  88,  127,  167,  177,  186,  201,  232. 

Forces,  man  a  correlation  of,  101,  129. 

Forgetfulness  of  self,  78. 

Forgiveness,  78.  197,  218.  219,  242,  246. 

Form,  61,  95,  106,  113,  115,  134,  137,  186. 

Foster,  Charles,  191. 

Foundation  of  the  Kingdom  of  Righteous- 
ness, 112. 

Founders  of  the  Theosophical  Movement, 
252,  268,  269,  271,  275. 

Four  principles,  89. 

Fourth  plane,  89. 

Fourth  round,   194. 

Fox  sisters,  192. 

Fundamental  principles,  156. 

Fundamental  teaching  of  Theosophy,  42. 


Future,  125. 

Future  lives,  161,  187,  259. 

Future  of  Theosophical  Society,  292,  294. 

Future,  seeing  the,  13,  125,  161. 

Future  state,  97,  98,  136,  159. 

G 

Gautama,   {see  Buddha). 

Genealogy  of  the  Ego,  180. 

Genesis,  43,  107,  108. 

Germain,  St.,  19,  24. 

Glanvil,  190. 

Globes,  87. 

Gnosis,  10. 

Gnostics,  10,  93,  111. 

Goal,  24,  166,  180,  205,  221,  223,  259. 

Goblins,  190. 

God,  42,  57,  61,  62,  63,  64,  66,  67,  68,  69, 

70,  71,  72,  73,  74,  75,  76,  81,  82,  94,  106, 

107,    109,   110,    144,   177,    178,    179,   182, 

184,    1%,   202,   207.   209,   211,   214,   216, 

217,  218,  219,  266. 
God  above  us,  172. 
God  in  man,  72,  130,  161. 
God  in  secret,  50,  67. 
God,  Manas  is  a,  179. 
Gods,  1,  3,  8,   13,   18,  69,  70,  79,  80,  89, 

103,  115,  131,  206. 
Golden  age,  59. 
Golden  thread,  161. 
Good,  12,  53,  56,  111,  151,  196,  197,  200, 

202,  206,  286. 
Gordian,  Emperor.  4. 
Gospels,  54,  77,  80. 
Gratitude,  240. 
Gravity,  127. 
Greece,   philosophers   of,   5,   6,   7,   37,   93, 

96,  105. 
Greek  system,  93,  96. 
Greeks,  2)7. 
Gross  matter,   105. 
Group,   family,   149. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


367 


Guardian  angel,   179. 
Gupta-Vidya,  15. 

H 

Hades,  97,  98,  142,  187. 

Hallucinated  hysteriacs,  131. 

Hallucinations,  124,  148. 

Happiness,  147,  149,  221,  224. 

Harmony,    109,    186,    201,    202,    203,    204, 

206,  207. 
Hashish,  258. 
Headquarters  of  Theosophical  Movement, 

47. 
Heart,  44,  67,  81,  227. 
Heathen,  73,  75. 
Heaven,  79,  111,  148,  169. 
Heavenly  wisdom,  90. 
Hell,  55,  77,  108,  136,  137,  139,  182,  239. 
Hellenic  teachers,  5. 
Helpers,  body  of,  18. 
Hereafter,   136. 
Herennius,  9. 
Hermas,  184. 
Hermes,  8,  97. 
Hermetic  text,  107. 
Heterogeneity,   177. 
Hierogrammatists,  10. 
Hierophants,  10,  2i7. 
Higher  beings,  12. 
Higher  consciousness,  150,  177. 
Higher  Ego,  67,  172. 
Higher  life,  213. 

Higher  Manas,  119,  120,  143,  181. 
Higher  mind,  117,  143. 
Higher  planes,  232. 
Higher  self.   11,   50,  52,  72,  80,   120,   130, 

132,  133,  171,  172,  178,  236. 
Higher  spiritual    Ego,   68. 
Higher  states  of  mind,  122. 
Higher  triad,  91,   142,   183. 
Hillel,  49. 
Hinayana,  10. 


Hinduism,   137. 

Hindus,   14,  69,  7Z,  83,  93,   161,   188,   195, 

241,  275. 
History,  265. 
Holy  Ghost,  67,  288. 
Holy  kiss,  106. 
Holy  One,   111,   112. 
Home,  D.  D.,  191. 
Homer,  4. 

Homogeneity,  83,  177,  178. 
Homogeneous  essence,  68,  84,  101. 
Horace,    108. 
Hue,  Abbe,  72,. 
Humanity,  20,  24,  46,  47,  53,  57,   59,  71, 

213,  225,  226,  227,  228,  229,  247,  261,  262. 
Human  character,  231. 
Human  consciousness,   135. 
Human  Ego,   180. 
Human  eidolon,  142. 
Human  interdependence,  199,  261. 
Human  law,  197. 
Human  monad,  118. 
Human  nature,   13,  42,  57.   170,  227,  243, 

246,  252. 
Human  solidarity,  229,  230. 
Human  soul.  2,  18,  74,  91,   104,   105,   113, 

114,   118,    120,    156,    157,   158,   159,    177. 
Human  spirit,   101,   105. 
Hunter,  Sir  William,  72. 
Huxley,  Mr.,  31,  94. 
Hypnotism,   11,  26,  27,   28,   72,  279,  280, 

281,  282. 
Hj'pocrites,  81. 
Hypotheses,  86,  88,  127,  285. 

I 

I,  {see  Ego). 

lamblichus,  3,  4,  24. 

Ideals,    49,    56,    154,    155.    175,    242,    245. 

252,  286. 
Ideas,  association  of,  123,  126. 
Identity,   130. 


368 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 


Identity  of  origin  of  religions,  4,  58. 

Idleness,  247,  248. 

Idolatry,  14,  70,  79,  93. 

Ignorance,  78,  %,  150,  212,  216,  248,  263. 

Illness,  257. 

Illusion,  58,  64,  83,  84,  113,  116,  118,  147, 

149,    150,    163,   165,   167,    175,    176,    177, 

213,  215,  295. 
Immediate  reincarnation,   168,   185. 
Immorality,  242,  243,  258. 
Immortal  Ego,  92,  281. 
Immortal  element,    116. 
Immortal  essence,   102. 
Immortal  life,    177. 
Immortal  man,  44,   154. 
Immortal  nature  of   man,  3. 
Immortal  self,  49,  128. 
Immortal  spirit,  74,   112,   117. 
Immortal  spiritual    consciousness,    176. 
Immortality,    77,   78,    102,    106,    107,    111, 

115,  120,  159,  163,  164,  165,  166. 
Immutable  law,  74,  84,  110,  136,  139,  162. 
Impartiality,   110,   195. 
Imperishable  Ego,  80,  92,  133. 
Imperishable  record,    219. 
Impersonal  Divine  Principle,  116,  183. 
Implacability  of  karmic  law,   197. 
Incantation,  69. 

Incarnating,   {see  Reincarnation). 
Incarnating  Ego,  (.yrr  Reincarnating  Ego). 
Incarnating  permanent  self,  130. 
Incarnation-cycle,    {see    Cycle). 
Indestructibility  of   spirit,    151. 
India,  9,  12,  18,  7Z,  79,  81,  112,  270. 
India,  sages  of,  4,  37. 
Indian  doctrines,  7. 
Indian  literature,    18. 
Indifference,   168,  230,  231. 
Individual  consciousness,  107. 
Individual  Ego,  77,  128,  160. 
Individual  immortality,    115. 
Individual  judgment,  231. 


Individual  Karma,   199. 

Individuality,  16,  29,  33,  34,  35,  77,  78,  92, 

104,    105,    115,    120,   131,   133,   134,    135, 

140,    145,    150,    152,   163,   166,   167,   172, 

179,    186,  215. 
Inequalities  of  life,  140. 
Infinite,  3,  11,  12,  61,  67,  70,  83,  196,  215, 

217. 
Influences,  189. 
Initiates,  5,  9,   10,   15,   16,   18,  22,  23,  57, 

77,  89,  90,  112,  147,  162,  171,  211,  277. 
Initiation,  74,  78,  81,  97. 
Injury,  246,  248. 
Injustice,  139,  195,  212. 
Inman,  195. 
Innate  knowledge,  131. 
Inner  Ego,  172,  178. 
Inner  faculties  and  powers,  257. 
Inner  group,  21,  23,  38,  59. 
Inner  man,    67,    105,    116,    175,    178,    205, 

255,  256. 
Inner  perception,   163. 
Inner  section,  254,  255,  257,  259. 
Inner  self,  30,  104,  187. 
Inner  selves,   140. 
Inspiration,  278,  288. 

Inspiration  of  men  by  Nirmanakayas,  151. 
Instinct,  93,  95,  117. 
Instinctual   soul,  97. 
Instructions,  21,  23. 
Instruments  of  research,  86. 
Intellect,  96,  170,  262. 
Intellectual  capacities,  172. 
Intellectual  conscious  soul,  148. 
Intelligence,  14,  91,  143,  151,  195. 
Intelligences,  190,  281. 
Intelligent  powers,  217. 
Intent,  200. 

Intercourse  with  goblins,    190. 
Intercourse  with  spirits,    189,    191,    192. 
Interdependence  of  humanity,   199,  261. 
Intuition,  48,  135,  216,  236,  241. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 


369 


Intuitional  perception,  124,  241,  257. 

Invocation,  69. 

Involution,    64. 

Irrational  animal  soul,  92,  94. 

Irrational  spiritual  soul,   101. 

Ishvara,    141. 

Isis  Unveiled,  103,  178,  186,  187,  188,  218, 

218,  219,  221. 
IT,  64,  83,  109,  120. 
Itself,  65,  83. 
lu-Kabar  Zivo,  184. 


James,  Epistle   of,  90. 

Javar  Zivo,  184. 

Javidan   Khirad,   59. 

Jehovah,  62,  97,  236. 

Jennings,  Hargrave,  274. 

Jesuits,  62. 

Jesus  Christ,  7,  8,   10,   14,   17,   18,  42,  43, 

47,  49,   55,  61,   68,  69,   70,   71,   73,   77, 

79,  81,  183,  187,  196,  197,  218,  221,  233, 

235,  238,  239. 
Jesus,    teachings    of,    10,    14,    42,    43,    47, 

49,  55,  68,  69,  77,  183,  187,  197,  238,  239. 
Jews,  41,  66,  68,  81,  108,  110,  217. 
John,  Gospel  of,  8,  84,  182,  183,  184. 
Josephus,  6. 
Judaism,  5. 

Judge,  William  Q.,  17,  39,  50,  128,  251. 
Judgment,  216,  231,  293. 
Justice,  54,  71,  75,  76,  108,  121,  136,  138, 

139,    148,    160,    161,   167,    195,    196,   206, 

209,   220,   221,   227,   230,   233,   234,   242, 

246. 


Kabalah,  22,  23,  62,  111,  184. 

Kabalists,  3.  24,  62,  65,  94,  97,   101,   102, 

183. 
Kama,   119,   129. 
Kamaloka,  97,  98,  129,  142,  186,  187. 


Kamalokic   shells,  29,   188. 

Kama  Rupa,  90,  91,  92,  94,  95,  117,  126, 
142,  173,  177,  186,  187. 

Kama-rupic  phantom,  143. 

Kama-tending  Manas,   181. 

Karanopadhi,   116. 

Kardec,  Allan,  188,  191. 

Karma,  46,  51,  73,  98,  108,  134,  137,  139, 
149,  151,  152,  159,  166,  179,  188,  195, 
196,  197,  198,  199,  200,  201,  202,  204, 
205,  206,  207,  208,  210,  211,  212,  221, 
224,  225,  229,  232,  241,  242,  243,  250, 
261,   290. 

Karma-Nemesis,  206. 

Karmic  complication,   121. 

Karmic  effects,   130,   153. 

Karmic  law,  46,  139,  161,  198,  207,  212, 
220,  229,  232. 

Karmic  past,   190. 

Karmic  punishment,  138,  159. 

Karmic  readjustment,    198,  201,  211. 

Karmic  reincarnation,   188. 

Karmic  responsibility,  224. 

Karmic  transgression,  137. 

Kether  Malchuth,  65. 

Key  to  religions,  5. 

Kindness,  227,  230,  240. 

King,  John,  190. 

King  Initiates  of  Egypt,  18. 

Kingdom  of  heaven,  13,  14,  112. 

Knight,  Prof.  W.,  125. 

Knowledge,  1,  2,  9,  13,  18,  36,  48,  56,  58, 
86,  214,  215,  216,  255,  286,  292. 

Kosmic  being,  88. 

Kosmos,  94. 

Krishna,  67. 

Kshetrajna,  67,  134. 

Kumaras,  137. 


Labre,  St.,  235,  255. 
Lancet,  277, 


370 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


Language,  295. 

Lao-Tze,   48,    116. 

Latent  powers,  41,  48,  211. 

Law,  46,  47,  65,  84,  108,  109,  146,  148, 
156,  157,  186,  195,  197,  198.  212,  220. 

Law,  immutable,  74,  84,  110,  136. 

Law  of  compensation,  179,  205. 

Law  of  retribution,  51,  108,  139,  152,  179, 
210. 

Law,  spiritual,  46. 

Law,  unerring.   138,  139. 

Lectures  on  Platonic  Philosophy,  125. 

Lethe,  138. 

Leviticus,  108.  184. 

Liberated  spirits,  93. 

Libraries    of    Theosophical    Society,   47. 

Life,  16,  58,  83,  90,  93,  94,  106,  109,  113, 
117,  118,  119,  121,  124,  126,  129,  131, 
137,  138.  139,  140,  142,  149,  150,  152, 
155,  156,  159,  160,  161,  163,  164,  165, 
167,  168,  169,  170,  171,  173,  174,  175, 
176,  177,  184,  185,  186,  194,  212,  213, 
223. 

Life  cycle,   (see  Cycle  of  life). 

Life  principle,  119,  126,  142,  173. 

Life  soul,  77. 

Light.  54,  105,  111,  113,  175. 

Light   31,    33,    121.    184. 

Light  of  Asia,  210. 

Light  of  Buddhi,  158,  175. 

Light  of  Egypt,  290. 

Limbus,  142. 

Linga  Sharira,  90,  126.  (See  Astral  body) 

Literature,  Theosophical,  244,  272,  278, 
283,  288. 

Locke,  87,  123. 

Lodge,  Great,  agents  of,  19,  294. 

Logic,  65,  76,  109,  144,  153,  182,  188,  218, 
219,  220. 

Logos,  62,  94,  109,  185. 

Long  Face,  184. 

Longinus,  4,  9. 


Loss  of  memory,    122. 

Loss  of  personal  Ego,  164,  186,  187. 

Loss  of  self-consciouness,    156. 

Loss  of  soul,    (sec   Annihilation). 

Love,  78,  109.  110,  111,  136,  145,  146,  147, 

148,  149,  230,  261,  266. 
Lower   Manas  90,  95,   114,   119,   143,   144, 

156,  158,  173,  175,  177,  181. 
Lower  mind,  117. 
Lower  nature,  170. 
Lower  personal  Ego,  68. 
Lower  principles,    142. 
Lower  self,  154,  262. 
Lucifer,  73,  155,  159. 
Luxury,  230. 
Lytton,  Bulwer,  243. 

M 

Mackenzie,  K.  R.  H.,  111. 

Macrocosm,  88. 

Madness,   124. 

Magian  system,  5. 

Magic,  3,  22,  23,  25,  26,  27,  68,  281,  282. 

Magician,  35,  102. 

Magic  powers,  282. 

Maha-manvantara,  62,  103,  106. 

Maharaja  sect,  274. 

Mahat,  134. 

Mahatmas,  275,  276,  277,  283,  284,  286, 
287,  288,  290. 

Mahayana,    10,    15. 

Malek,  4. 

Man,  Mankind,  82,  89,  90,  91,  93,  94,  96, 
97,  98,  100,  101,  102,  103,  104,  105,  107, 
108,  115,  116,  117,  118,  119,  120,  129, 
130,  137,  138,  140,  154,  173,  174,  175, 
178,  179,  185.  205.  255,  256,  294. 

Man  and  animals,  difference  between,  103, 
117. 

Man,  common  origin  of,  42,  44,  45. 

Man,  conqueror  over  matter,  179. 

Man,  unity  of,  17,  46,  47,  82. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


371 


Manas,   67,   90,   91,   92,    94,   95, 
102,    114,    118,   119,    120,    129, 
144,    156,   157,   158,    161,    163, 
174,    177,   179,   180,    181,    185, 

Manas,  dual,  91,  92,  157. 

Manas,  reflection    of,   95,    177. 

Manas-Sutratma,    165. 

Manas-Taijasa,    151. 

Manasa-putras,  134,   137,  180. 

Manasic  consciousness,  161. 

Manasic  Ego,   135. 

Manasic  elements,  97. 

Manasic  entity,  181. 

Manasic  mind,    175. 

Manasic  recollections,    162. 

Manifestations,    spiritualistic,    28 
143,  187,  189. 

Manifested  Deity,  157. 

Mant,  Bishop,  182. 

Mantra,  69. 

Manu,  134,  138. 

Manvantara,  83,  137. 

"  M.  A.,  Oxon.,"  31,  151,  192. 

Marriage,  236,  258. 

Masonic  Cyclopadia,  111. 

Masses,  78,  79,  80,  125,  241,  242, 
260. 

Masters,  18,  23,  24,  78,  129,  233, 
277,  280,  281,  283,   286,   287, 
290,  291,  294. 

Material  improvement,    232. 

Material  life,    168,    169. 

Material  principles,  133. 

Materialism,  17,  33,  44,  117,  125, 

Materialists,  31,  36,  93,  99,  126, 
155,  156,  157,  158,  159,  160, 
167,    168,    172,    195,   207,   217, 

Materialization,  29,  92,   143,   187, 

Matter,  33,  34,  44,  63,  99,  101, 
112,  136,  166,  167,  177,  180, 
222. 

Matter-spirit,  99. 


99,  101, 

134,  143, 

172,  173, 

186,  187. 


,   29,    30, 


243,  253, 

275,  276, 
288,   289, 


151,  270. 

130,  131, 

163,  164, 
280. 
188. 

105,  107, 

185,  215, 


Maya,  118,  147. 

Mayavi  Rupa,   168. 

Meadows  of  Hades,  97,  98. 

Meat-eating,  256. 

Mediaeval  Theosophists,   105. 

Mediaeval  Theosophy,    22. 

Meditation,  4,   7,   12. 

Mediums,  28,  31,  191,  192. 

Mediumship,  3,  22,  27,  72,   188,  190. 

Megittawatti,  75. 

Members  of  Theosophical  Society,  lay,  25. 

Members       of       Theosophical       Society, 

pledged,  21. 
Memory,  34,   106,   113,   122,   123,  124,   125, 

126,    127,    128,    130,    131,    132,    135,    138 

155,    174,    177,   262,   265. 
Memory,  physical,  124,  125,  126,  127,  130, 

131,   132,  262. 
Memory  of  the  soul,  124,  130,  138. 
Mens,   118. 
Mental  aspects,   116. 
Mental  development,  228,  294. 
Mental  plane,  198. 
Mental  powers,  128. 
Mental  Scientists,  72. 
Mentality,  170. 
Mercavah,  10. 
Merciful  law,  148. 
Mercy,   68,    109,    136,    146,    153,    196,   212, 

227,  240. 
Merit,  71,  144,  197,  204. 
Mesmer,    19. 

Mesmerism,  22,  23,  27,  28. 
Messiah,   184. 
Metaphysical  plane,  45. 
Metaphysical  terms,   173. 
Metaphysicians,    103. 

Metaphysics,  77,  88,  96,  118,  128,  241,  242. 
Meta-spirit,  33,  105,  133. 
Michael,  137. 
Microcosm,  89. 
Migrations,  cyclic,   111. 


372 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


Mind,  74,  91,  93,  94,  95,  99,  101,  109,  117, 
119,  122,  125,  128,  132,  133,  134,  143, 
157,  172,  175,  180,  181,  208,  238,  258, 
279. 

Ministering  spirits,   182. 

Miracles,  27,  48,  269,  275,  278,  279,  280. 

Misery,  35,  201,  262. 

Mishna,  110. 

Missionaries,  75,  270. 

Mistakes  concerning  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety, 254. 

Mistakes  concerning  Theosophy,  244. 

Mnemonics,   124. 

Mohammedans,  72>,  217. 

Moksha,   111. 

Molecule,  64. 

Moment  of  birth,   161. 

Moment  of  death,  160,  161. 

Monad,  91,  118,  120,  128,  164. 

Monas,  94,  105. 

Moon,  96,  97,  98,  101. 

Moral  elevation,  52,  277. 

Moral  engulf ment,  201. 

Moral  improvement,  294. 

Mortal  man,  90. 

Moses,  6,  39,  43,  61,  69,  75,  190. 

Mosheim,  6,  7. 

Motion,  113,  114. 

Motive,  200. 

Motto  of  Theosophical  Society,  3. 

Movements,  earlier  Theosophical,  294. 

Mundaka  Upanishad,  157. 

Mundane  life,   {see  Earth  life). 

Muscular  action,  191. 

Mysteries,  3,  5,  10,  18,  37,  95,  97,  98,  137, 
183. 

Mysteries  of  God,   76,    177. 

Mysteries  of  heaven,  79. 

Mysteriis,  De,  4. 

Mystery  language,  24. 

Mysticism,  23,  37,  190,  242,  294. 

Mystics,  4,  12,  24. 


N 
Names  and  principles,  169,  170. 
Names,  sacred,  286,  288,  289,  290. 
National   Karma,   199,  200. 
Natural  law,  24. 
Nature,  3,  42,  56,  62,  63,  64,  74,  84,  86,  87, 

185,   186,    195,    198,  200,   217,   221,  243, 

246,  247,  252,  277,  278,  281. 
Nature,  errors  of,  217. 
Nature,  failures  of,  168,  185,  195. 
Nature,  laws  of,  20,  41,  48,  148,  195,  198, 

278. 
Nature  of  Manas,   179. 
Nature  of  mind,   122. 
Nature,  secrets  of,  24,  26,  27,  41,  48. 
Nature  symbolism,  274. 
Nasarene  Codex,  184. 
Necessity,  cycle  of,  166. 
Necessity,  fatal,   110. 
Necromancy,  3,  26,  190. 
Nemesis,  125,  206. 
Neo-Platonic  Theosophy,  17. 
Neo-Platonists,  2,  4,  5,  101. 
Nephesh,  74,  77,  94,  98,  107,  108,  184. 
New  birth,  49. 
New  body,  127,  134. 
New  brain,  127,  130. 
New  incarnation,  129,  139,  157,  184. 
New  Jerusalem,  148. 
New  man,  140. 
New  memory,  127. 

New  personality,  76,   140,   153,   164,   194. 
Nezv  Platonism  and  Alchemy,  2,  5,  11,  12. 
New  soul,  109. 
Nezv  Testament,  112. 
Night,  82,  83,  181. 
Night  of  Brahma,  83. 
Nirmanakayas,  150,  151. 
Nirvana,   70,   79,   98,    100,    108,    111,    112, 

113,  115,  132,  150,  166,  167. 
Noah,  184. 
Non-ego,  80. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEO SOPHY 


373 


Nonentity,  113,  143. 

Non-sectarian  education,  45. 

Nothing,  113,  lis. 

No-thing,  115. 

Noumena,  94,  158,  176. 

Nous,  89,  92,  93,  94,  95,  96,  105,  114,  120, 

177. 
Nout,  93. 
Numbers  and  principles,  90,  115. 

O 

Objections  to  Reincarnation,  120,  122. 
Objective,  Atma  can  never  be,  171. 
Objectivity,  82,  83,  87,  128,  136,  178. 
Objects  of  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and 

Theosophical  Society,  20,  38,  40,  41,  47, 

48,  253. 
Oblivion,  147,  148. 
Occultism,  22,  23.  24,  25,  26,  27,  4<.,   117, 

118,   124,  213,  255,   258,  281,   289,   290. 
Occultism,  Pseudo-,  22,  23. 
Occultist,  22,  25,  26,  27,  66,  69,  183. 
Occultists,  68,  83,  113. 
Occult  powers.  26,  27,  211,  255,  257,  278, 

280,  281,  282. 
Occult  process,  67,  68. 
Occult  sciences,  26,  27,  28,  48,  256. 
Occult  truths,  151,  294. 
Ocean  of  light,  105. 
Oldenberg,  80. 
Old  Testament,  43. 
Olympiodorus.  125. 
Omnipresent    Principle,  65. 
Omniscience,  64,  75. 
Omniscience    of    spiritual    Ego,    131,    132, 

146,  155. 
One  essence,  42,    171. 
One  law,  65. 
One-Only-One,  93. 
One  Reality,  175. 
One  Self,  172,  173. 
One  universal  Self,  171,  172. 


One  Unknown  Principle,  178. 
Only  begotten,  98,  184. 
Opinion,  49,  232. 
Opium,  258. 
Orientalism,  15. 
Origen,  4,  9,  104. 

Origin  of  man,  the  common,  42,  45. 
Original   program   of    Theosophical    Soci- 
ety, 253. 
Orpheus,  8. 
Orthodoxy,   16,   108,   133. 


Pagan  duties,  225. 

Pagans,  217. 

Pain,   {see  Sufifering). 

Palace  of  Love,  lU. 

Palestine,  5,  81. 

Pan,  63. 

Pantaenus,  6. 

Pantheism,  63. 

Pantheists,  63. 

Parable  of  the  vineyard.   182 

Parables.  10,  22,  54,  79,  239. 

Parabrahman,  62,  217. 

Paracelsus,  19. 

Paradise.  64,  98,  108,  112,  136,  144,  163, 
169,  219. 

Paralyzing  the  personal  ego,  131,   133. 

Paranirvana,  166. 

Parsis,  41. 

Passions,  71,  90,  95,  119,  126,  128,  173, 
181,  294. 

Past  incarnations,  {see  Previous  incarna- 
tions). 

Path,  166. 

Path,  The,  39,  51,  207. 

Paul,  12,  90,  92. 

Peace,  294. 

Pentateuch,  6,  107. 

Perception,  inner,   146. 

Perfection,   195. 


374 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


Permanent  Ego,  127. 

Permanent  principle,  120,  215. 

Permanent  self,   130. 

Perpetual  progress,  153,  185,  194. 

Persecution,  253,  268. 

Persephone,  97,  98. 

Persia,  9. 

Personal  consciousness,  93,  107. 

Personal  Ego,  68,  77,  80,  92,  104,  130, 
131,  133,  160,  164,  173,  185,  187. 

Personal  exertion,  240. 

Personal  form,  186. 

Personal  God,  109,  202,  266. 

Personal  happiness,  224. 

Personal  self,  130,  131. 

Personal  soul,  102,  106,  112. 

Personality,  13,  21,  29,  31,  33,  34,  76,  77, 
79,  83,  92,  93,  102,  103,  107,  111,  120, 
126,  128,  130,  132,  133,  134,  135,  140, 
142,  144,  145,  152,  153,  158,  159,  165, 
166,  167,  168,  173,  174,  175,  176,  177, 
179,  181,  183,  184,  185,  187,  194,  204, 
208,  245. 

Peter,  224. 

Phcedo,  125. 

Phallicism,  273,  274,  275. 

Phantasy,  125. 

Pharisees,  66. 

Phenomena,  27,  28,  29,  30,  31,  66,  94,  158, 
176,  189,  285. 

Philadelphus,  5. 

Philaletheians,  2,  4,  7. 

Philaletheian   system,  9. 

Philanthropy,  78,  293. 

Philo  Judaeus,  6,  110. 

Philosophers,  Fire-,  37,  105. 

Philosopher's  stone,  68. 

Philosophy,  60,  293. 

Philosophy,  Eastern,    33,    103,    115,    287. 

Philosophy,  Esoteric,   21,   93,   95. 

Philosophy,  Platonic,  6. 

Philosophy,   Pythagorean,  6. 


Philosophy  of  Spiritualism,  31. 

Photography,  spiritual,  12,  130. 

Phren,  94,  95,   114. 

Physical  body,   30,   53,   54,   71,  89,  90,  94, 

95.  96,  102,  103,  104,  107,  116,  117,  119, 

126,    128,    129,    134,    135,    138,    142,    150, 

151,    152,    153,    163,    173,   181,   187,   255, 

257. 
Physical  brain,  67,  90,   123,  126,   127,  143, 

151,  178,  187,  257. 
Physical  consciousness,    132,    177. 
Physical  frame,  96. 
Physical  life,  93,  138,  152. 
Physical  man,  89,  93,   100,   173. 
Physical  memory,   124,   125,   126,   131,   132, 

262. 
Physical  mind,  95. 
Physical  nature,  281. 
Physical  phenomena,  28,  30,   189,  190. 
Physical  plane,  41,  87,  130,  198. 
Physical  principles,  126. 
Physical  processes,  127. 
Physical  science,  85,  86. 
Physiologists,  124,  163. 
Pilgrim,  spiritual,  165. 
Pineal  body,  119. 
Pistis,  216. 
Pity,  78,  145,  246. 
Planes,  seven,  84,  87,  88. 
Planes  of  being,  87,  88,  180,  233. 
Planes  of  consciousness,  88,  117,  118,  130, 

143,    175,    176,   198,   213,   215,   216,  223, 

233. 
Plane  of  desire,  208. 
Planes  of  space,  87. 
Planet,    septenary   constitution   of,   87. 
Planetary  chain,  87. 
Planetary  spirits,    103,    190. 
Planetary  system,  84. 
Planets,  84,  85. 
Planets  and  principles,  96. 
Plastic  soul,  119. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


375 


Plato,  8,  12,  37,  49,  89,  90,  91,  92,  93,  94, 
95,  104,  109,  114,  125,  185. 

Platonic  philosophy,  6. 

Pleasure,  96,  213,  223. 

Pledge,  10,  21,  38,  48,  49,  50,  51,  52,  95. 

Pledged  Chelas,  118. 

Pledged  members  of  Theosophical  Soci- 
ety, 21. 

Pleroma,  111,  183. 

Pleroma  of  Eternal  Light,  111. 

Plotinus,  3,  4,  9,  11,  24,  112,  138. 

Plutarch,  94,  96,  97. 

Point,  118. 

Point  Loma,  Headquarters  at,  20,  39,  47, 
251. 

Policy  of  Theosophical  Society,  5. 

Political  reforms,  227. 

Political,  Theosophical  Society  is  not,  227. 

Politics,  227,  228. 

Porphyry,  3,  4. 

Post-mortem  consciousness,   130,   155,   163. 

Post-mortem  dreams,   163. 

Post-mortem  Karma,  98. 

Post-mortem  life,  16,  155,  156,  157,  160, 
165,  167,  168,  169.    {See  After-life) 

Post-mortem  punishment,    136. 

Post-mortem  spiritual    consciousness,    145. 

Post-mortem  states,    100,    136. 

Post-natal  consciousness,  155. 

Pot  Amun,  2. 

Potentialities  of  mind,   122. 

Power  of  choice,  170. 

Powers,  divine,  20,  40,  178. 

Powers,  evil,  281. 

Powers,  intelligent,  217. 

Powers,  occult,  26,  211,  255,  257,  278,  280, 
281. 

Powers  of  the  incarnate  Spirit,  193. 

Powers,  psychic,    191,   280,   281,  293. 

Powers,     spiritual,  101,  178. 

Practical,  198,  213. 

Practical  charity,  238,  244. 


Practical  study,  255. 

Practical  Theosophy,  53,  223,  235,  237,  260. 

Prajna,  157. 

Pralaya,  83,   103. 

Prana,  90,  117,  119,  126,  173. 

Prayer,  12,  61,  66,  67,  68,  69,  70,  71,  72, 
72,,  195. 

Prayer  kills  self-reliance,  70,  71. 

Predestination,  209. 

Predevachanic    unconsciousness,    150. 

Pre-existence,  104,  111,  125. 

Prejudice,   125,  267,  293. 

Premature  return  to  earth-life,  121. 

Premonitions,   135. 

Presbyterian   Confession   of   Faith,  209. 

Previous  incarnations,  106,  122,  126,  127, 
135,  138,  147,  155,  158,  159,  160,  161, 
162,    164,    197,    198,   211,   232. 

Pride,  25,  247. 

Primeval  emanations,  109. 

Primordial  elements,   113. 

Primordial  homogeneity,    177. 

Primordial  matter,   105. 

Primum  mobile,  93. 

Principle,  Principles,  62,  65,  67,  89,  90,  91, 
92,  93,  94,  95,  96,  97,  98,  99,  101,  103, 
104,  105,  109,  115,  116,  117,  118,  119, 
126,  133,  142,  143,  150,  153,  169,  170, 
172,  173,  175,  177,  178,  179,  183,  215, 
232. 

Private  judgment,  216. 

Prognostication,  125. 

Progress,   153,   194,  213,  231,  242,  294. 

Prohibitory  rules,  222. 

Projection  of   double,   118. 

Propaganda,  47. 

Prophets,  57. 

Proserpina,  97,  98. 

Prospective  vision   of   future  life,   161. 

Protean  soul,   119. 

Prototype,  205. 

Providence,  206. 


376 


THE    KEY    TO    T  HBO  SOPHY 


Providential  protections,   149. 

Pseudo-Occultism,  22,  23. 

Psuche,  89,  91,  92,  95,  96,   105. 

Psuchikos,   112. 

Psychic  energies,  129. 

Psychic  faculties,  293,  294. 

Psychic  growth,  294. 

Psychic  nature,  281. 

Psychic  phenomena,  30,  189,  285. 

Psychic  powers,  48,   191,  280,  293. 

Psychic  realms,    280. 

Psychic  senses,  85,   125. 

Psychical  body,  90. 

Psychical  Research,  Society  for,  270,  284, 

285,  286. 
Psychical  wisdom,   90. 
Psychism,  22,  28. 
Psychologists,  ZZ,  88,   122,    123,    124,   131, 

135. 
Psychology,  72,   151. 
Psycho-spiritual   sciences,  85. 
Public  opinion,  232. 
Publicans,  43,  54. 
Punishment,    108,   135,    136.    137,    138,    159, 

160,  195,  196,  197,  203,  205,  206,  212,  242. 
Purgatory,  129. 
Purity,  236. 
Puranas,  204. 

Pythagoras,  8,  10,  49,  90,  94,  95,  1(H,  114. 
Pythagorean  philosophy,  5. 
Pythagoreans,  113. 


Quakers,  54. 

Quaternary,  89,  90,  91,  93,  96. 

Quintile,  97,  98. 


Rabbis,  7,  10. 
Rabbis  of  Babylon,  5. 
Race,  elevation  of  the,  230. 
Race,  fifth.   175. 


Race,  third,  134, 

Races,  seven,   184. 

Racial  barriers,  265,  293. 

Radiant  mind,  157. 

Radiation,  3,  84,  91,  105,  109. 

Raja  Yogis,  162. 

Rational  entities,  137. 

Rational  faculties,  113. 

Rational  soul,  74,  94,  100,  101,  111,  114, 
117. 

Ravings  of  fever,  124. 

Ray,  58,  90,  130,  180,  187. 

Reabsorption,    107. 

Reaction,  202,  230. 

Readjustment,   198,   199,  200,  201,  206. 

Real  Ego,  92,  115,  134,  180. 

Real  man,  99,  130,  134,  140. 

Real  spiritualism,    189. 

Real  world,  176. 

Reality,  83,  84,  118,  157,  164,  165.  167, 
175,  176. 

Reason,  96,  196,  218,  220,  236,  265,  266. 

Reasoned  faith,  194. 

Reasoning  soul,  105,  117. 

Rebirth,  76,  104,  122,  129,  130,  132,  135, 
139,  161,  165,  168,  184,  186,  194,  197, 
206,  212,  213,  222,  223.  (See  Reincarn- 
ation) 

Recollection,  106,  123,  126,  131,  135,  160, 
162,  167. 

Record,  220,  221. 

Reflection,  83,  128,  146,  174,  186. 

Reformers,  47,  78,  112. 

Reincarnating  Ego,  29,  67,  94,  100,  102, 
105,  111,  114,  127,  128,  130,  131,  134, 
138,  144,  153,  161,  164,  172,  174,  176, 
178,   179,    180. 

Reincarnation,  34,  94,  103,  106,  109,  110, 
111,  112,  120,  122,  127,  128,  139,  140, 
144,  149,  153,  157,  160,  168,  178,  180, 
183,  187,  188,  191,  194,  204,  206,  212, 
229,   232,   241,  243. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


Z77 


Reincarnation:     A     Study     of    Forgotten 

Truth,  131,  205. 
Relief  of  suffering,  200. 
Religion,  1,  5,  7,  8,  9,  15,  16,  45,  58,  60, 

293. 
Religions,  5,  6,  7,  9,   15,   16,   17,  27,  45, 

60. 
Remembrance,  122,  123,  126,  127,  131,  132. 

(.S"^^   Recollection.) 
Reminiscence,    123,    124,    135,    138.     {See 

Remembrance.) 
Remission  of  sin,  196. 
Renunciation,  21,  150. 
Repentance,  203,  204,  219. 
Research,  25. 
Resignation,  49,  50. 
Responsibility,  181,  203,  224,  236. 
Rest,  35,  138,  150,  194. 
Rest  of  the  soul,  155,  160,  190,  194. 
Resurrection,  93,  97,   154. 
Retardation  of  Karma,  200. 
Retribution,  51,   108,  139,  179,  210,  212. 
Retributive  adjustment,  132. 
Retributive  justice,  148,  195. 
Retributive  Karma,   199,  201. 
Retributive  law,  195. 
Retrospection,  161. 
Return  of  spirits,  {see  Spirits.) 
Reunion  with  spirit,  215. 
Revelation  of  the  divine,   157. 
Revelation,  Theosophy  not  a,  36. 
Revenge,  248. 
Reward,  73,  108,  197. 
Reward  of  Ego,  136. 
Ritualism,  13,  15. 
Romans,  37. 
Root  of  being,   176. 
Root  of  consciousness,   171,   176. 
Root  of  nature,  3,  45,  63. 
Root-principle,  177. 
Rosicrucians,  37,  290. 
Rosicrucians,  274. 


Rosse's   (Lord)   telescope,  291. 

Round,  134,  194. 

Royal  College  of  Physicians,  24. 

Rules,  21,  49,  50. 

Rupa,  90,  128. 


Sacred  names,  286,  288,  289. 

Sacred  science,  24. 

Sacrifice  of  founders  and  leaders  of  The- 

osophical  Society,  252. 
Sadducees,  81,  108. 
Sages,  12,  13,  37,  137. 
Samadhi,  12,  70,  154. 
Samanas,  80. 
Samkhara,  128. 
Samma-sambuddha,  163. 
Samothrace,  Hierophants  of,  10. 
Samyuttaka  Nikaya,  80. 
Sanskrit   names,    169. 
Sanfia,   128. 
Sat,  166. 
Savior,  72,  81. 
Saviors,  seven,  184. 
School,  Eastern,   157. 
Schools,  260,  261,  262,  263,  264. 
Schools,  Theosophical,  266. 
Science,  24,  46,  85,  86,  88,   127,   128,   151, 

262,  278,  279. 
Science,  Divine,  1. 
Science,  occult,  25,  26,  27,  48,  255. 
Science,  psycho-spiritual,  85. 
Science,  sacred,  24. 
Science,  true,  23. 
Scientific  Theosophy,  27. 
Scientists,   124. 
Scientists,  Mental,  72. 
Seances,  92,  189,  190. 
Seat  of  animal  desires,  119. 
Second  death,  142. 
Second  Sight,  193. 
Secrecy,   10,    13,  50. 


378 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


Secret  Doctrine,  60,  103,  116,  137,  157,  205, 

274,  275,  283,  288. 
Secret  science,  163,  213. 
Secret  wisdom,  11,  15,  77. 
Secrets,  divine,  13. 
Secrets  of  initiation,  78,  81. 
Secrets  of  nature,  24,  48. 
Sectarianism,  36,  38,  48,  57,  81. 
Section,   Esoteric,  20,  21,  24,  38,  49,  254, 

255,  257,  259. 
Seeming  injustice,   140,  206. 
Seers,  4,  24,  57,  85,  128,  197,  211,  214. 
Self,  11,  30,  49,  50,  52,  67,  71,  72,  78,  80, 

104,    120,    128,    130,    132,    133,    136,    154, 

171,   172,   173,   178,  234,  262. 
Self-abandonment,  233. 
Self-abnegation,  20,  234. 
Self-consciousness,    {see  Consciousness), 
Self-development,   53,  235. 
Self-hypnotism,  72. 
Self-improvement,  49,  52. 
Self-made  destiny,  179. 
Self-moving  unit,  94. 
Self-potent  spirit,  93. 
Self-reliance,  70,  71,  266. 
Self-sacrifice,  78,  233,  234,  235,  236. 
Selfish   indulgence,  230. 
Selfishness,   13,   17,  37,  38,  42,  68,  69,  70, 

72,    202,    203,    227,    230,    231,   242,   261, 

262,  277,  294. 
Selflessness,  205,  292. 
Selves,  53,  126,  172. 

Senses,  85,  87,  88,  170,  175,  176,  216,  266. 
Sentimentalism,  220. 
Separateness,  200,  232. 
Separation  into  sexes,  194. 
Sephiroth,  62. 
Septenary  nature  of  man,  89,  95,  97,  98, 

185. 
Septenary  nature  of  planet,  87. 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  54,  58,  238. 
Servant  playing  violin,  131. 


Servant  speaking  Hebrew,  131. 

Seven  Buddhas,   184. 

Seven  fundamental    forces,  88. 

Seven  planes  of  being,  84,  87,  88. 

Seven  principles,  89,  95,  116,  120. 

Seven  races,    184. 

Seven  saviors,   184. 

Seven  states  of  consciousness,  88,  89. 

Seven  vines,  184. 

Seventh  principle,  118. 

Seventh  race,    194. 

Seventh  round,   194. 

Sexes,   194,   199. 

Shadow,  93,  94,  95,  96. 

Shadow,   Brothers  of  the,  280. 

Shakespeare,  137,  141. 

Shelley,  140. 

Shells,  29,  187,  188,  189. 

Siamese  Buddhism,  16,  73,  79. 

Silence,  70,  250. 

Sin,  72,,  138,  200,  246,  248,  250. 

Sisterhood,  230. 

Six  principles,   116,   117. 

Skandhas,  77,  128,  129,  130,  133,  139,  152, 

153,  154,  174,  179,  181. 
Slade,  191. 

Slanders,  246,  248,  250,  253,  287. 
Slate-writing,  29. 
Slavery,  44. 

Sleep,  30,  31,  162,  163,  165,  167,  168,  169. 
Social  efforts,  231. 
Social  evils,  199,  230,  267. 
Social  prejudices,  293. 
Social  questions,  228. 
Society,  classes  in,  199,  230. 
Socrates,  8,  49,  95. 
Solar   system,  84. 
Solidarity,  230. 

Solomon  ben  Yehudah  Ibn  Gebirol,  65. 
Somnambulism,  29,   130,   132. 
Sons  of  God,  57. 
Sons  of  universal  mind,   134,   180. 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 


Z79 


Sorcery,  27,  68,  81,  282. 

Sorrow,  138,  144,  145. 

Soul,  2,  3,  44,  74,  75,  76,  77,  78,  81,  82, 
89,  90,  91,  92,  94,  95,  96,  97,  98,  101, 
102,  104,  105,  106,  107,  108,  109,  110, 
111,  112,  113,  114,  115,  116,  117,  118, 
119,  120,  124,  125,  130,  132,  134,  139, 
148,  153,  155,  156,  157,  158,  159,  161, 
162,  163,  169,  170,  171,  172,  177,  182, 
184,   185,   190,  214. 

Soul  and  spirit,  44,  89,  92,  112.  152,  185, 
214. 

Soul  memory,  138. 

Soul-yearnings,  147. 

Space,   185. 

Space,  layers  of,  87. 

Space,  planes  of,  87. 

Space,  subjective,   142. 

Spark,  divine,  30,  178. 

Sphere,  65. 

Spirit,  29,  33,  34,  44,  67,  71,  72,  74,  89, 
91,  92,  93,  94,  95,  100,  101,  102,  103, 
104,  105,  106,  107,  112,  113,  114,  115, 
116,  117,  118,  130,  133,  148,  150,  152, 
156,    167,    177,    180,    186,   214,   215,   221. 

Spirit  identity,  151. 

Spirit  identity,  151. 

Spirit-matter,  99. 

Spirit-soul,  94,  97. 

Spiritists,  92,   188. 

Spirits,  28,  29,  30,  31,  69,  92,  93,  103,  144, 
145,   187,   188,   189,   191,   192,  290. 

Spirits,  communication  with,  28,  29,  30, 
31,  143,  144,  149,  150,  152,  187,  189,  190, 
191,  192,  193,  269. 

Spirits,  effect  of  drinking,  258. 

Spirits,  intelligence  of,  29. 

Spirits,  Nature,  93. 

Spirits,  planetary,   103,    190. 

Spiritual  affection,    149. 

Spiritual  body,   90. 

Spiritual  breath,    113. 


Spiritual  consciousness,   67,   92,    135,    145, 

171,  175,  176. 
Spiritual  death,   186. 
Spiritual  development,  228,  231,  232,  256, 

257,  258,  294. 
Spiritual  efflorescence,    186. 
Spiritual  Ego,   31,   68,   91,    102,    105,    106, 

120,   124,    130,    131,    132,   134,    146,   154, 

165,  172,  183,  187. 
Spiritual  energy,   186. 
Spiritual  entity,   105,  113,   137,   178,  180. 
Spiritual  essence,    164. 
Spiritual  existence,  223. 
Spiritual  eyes,   156,   163. 
Spiritual  forces,  232. 
Spiritual  happiness,   222. 
Spiritual  holy  love,  149. 
Spiritual  "  I,"  131,  159,  165. 
Spiritual  individuality,  29,   166,  167. 
Spiritual  intuition,   48,   216,   236. 
Spiritual  law,  46. 
Spiritual  law    of   continuit}',    157, 
Spiritual  life,   164,   165. 
Spiritual  man,   89,    100. 
Spiritual  mind,  119. 
Spiritual-minded,  119. 
Spiritual  mysticism,    190. 
Spiritual  nature,  222,  281. 
Spiritual  photography,  12,  130. 
Spiritual  pilgrim,    165. 
Spiritual  plane,   198,  223. 
Spiritual  powers,  41,   48,    101,    178,   281. 
Spiritual  principles,  98,  118,  126,  133. 
Spiritual  ray,   130,   187. 
Spiritual  realm,  280. 
Spiritual  science,  85. 
Spiritual  self,  11,  30,  130,  136,  160. 
Spiritual  senses,  85,  216. 
Spiritual  soul,  31,  89,  91,  95,  97,  101,  105, 

114,    118,    119,    120,    134,    158,    172,    184. 
Spiritual  spiritualism,  28,  33,  189. 
Spiritual  spiritualistic    phenomena,    30. 


380 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


Spiritual  transmutation,  68. 

Spiritual  unity,   17. 

Spiritual  vision,  178. 

Spiritual  visions,  85. 

Spiritual  world,    156,    178. 

Spiritualism,  3,  22,  28,  31,  33,  35,  144, 
151,  188,  189,  190.  191,  192,  193. 

Spiritualists,  28,  29,  30,  31,  32,  33,  92, 
120,  144,  145,  146,  148,  151,  152,  169, 
185,  186,  187,  188,  191,  192,  193,  269, 
290. 

Spirituality,   144,  294. 

Spleen,  119. 

Spooks,  143,  188,  190. 

Stage,  of  life,  34,  130,  166,  181. 

States  of  consciousness,  (see  Conscious- 
ness). 

States  of  matter,  99. 

States  of  mind,  (see  Mind). 

Sthula  Sharira,  90,  126.  (See  Physical 
body) 

Sthulopadhi,  116. 

Strict  morality,  21. 

Study,  244,  247. 

Study,  theoretical   and  practical,  255. 

St.  Germain,  19,  24. 

St.  Martin,  Count,  19. 

Subjective,  28,  82,  155,  178. 

Subjective  being,  115,  169. 

Subjectivity,  83.  84,  87,  136. 

Substance,  91,  92,  105,  106,  107,  113,  115, 
215. 

Succession  of  births,  194. 

Suffering,  25,  110,  140,  145,  146,  159,  160, 
167,  198,  200,  202,  223,  229. 

Suggestion,  72,  279,  281,  282. 

Suicide,  223. 

Sukshmopadhi,  116. 

Summer-land,  148,  169. 

Sun,  93,  96,  97,  101. 

Supernatural,  278. 

Superstition,  27,  48,  79,  216. 


Sutratma,  145,  165,  166,  168. 
Sutratma-Buddhi,   165. 
Svapna,  116. 
Sweating  system,  240. 
Swedenborg,  23,  185. 
Symbolism,  22,  65,  67,  183,  184. 
Symbols   of   Wisdom-Religion,    14,  67. 
Sympathy,  168,  240. 
Synesius,  104. 


Taijasa,  134,  157,  158,  159,  163. 
Tao-te-King,  116. 
Taraka  Raja  Yoga  school,  116. 
Teachers,    18,   52,   57,    159,   233,   281,   288, 

289,  291,  294. 
Teachings,  not  sold,  50,  275,  289. 
Temptation,    111. 
Term  between  births,  132. 
Terrestrial    body,    104,    138,    154.       (See 

Physical  body) 
Terrestrial  conceptions,    167. 
Terrestrial  Ego,    159. 
Terrestrial  entity,  181. 
Terrestrial  life,    (see  Earth-life). 
Terrestrial  mind,    157. 
Terrestrial  personality,   159,   166,   167. 
Terrestrial  plane,  153. 
Terrestrial  soul,   120. 
Terrestrial  suffering,    167. 
Terrestrial  wisdom,  90. 
Testimony  of  seers,  85. 
Tetragrammaton,  62. 
That,  133. 

Theodidaktos,  3,  4,  7. 
Theogonia,  1. 

Theology,    (see   Christian   theology). 
Theosophia,  1,  58. 
Theosophic  development,    256. 
Theosophic  literature,  47,  278,  283,  288,  292. 
Theosophical  Society,  Arcane  Section  of, 

38. 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


381 


Theosophical  Society,  conduct  of  members 
of,  47,  49,  52,  53,  55,  56,  225,  226,  242, 
244,  246,  247,  248,  249,  250,  251. 

Theosophical  Society  has  no  creed,  19, 
20,  57.  59. 

Theosophical  Society  can  not  be  crushed, 
268. 

Theosophical  Society,  defense  of,  244. 

Theosophical   Society,  earlier  movements, 

19,  293,  294. 

Theosophical  Society,  enemies  of,  243,  248, 
249,  251,  252,  268,  269,  270,  271,  272, 
273,  274,  275,  284,  290. 

Theosophical  Society,  Esoteric  Section  of, 

20,  21,  23,  38,  49,  50,  59. 
Theosophical    Society,    formation    of,    36, 

56,  57. 

Theosophical  Society,  founders  of,  251, 
252,  268,  269,  287,  290,  292. 

Theosophical  Society,  future  of,  292,  293, 
294,  295. 

Theosophical  Society,  Headquarters  of, 
47,  251. 

Theosophical  Society,  helping  the,  244. 

Theosophical  Society,  incentive  for  join- 
ing the,  22,  56,  213,  214,  237. 

Theosophical   Society,  libraries  of,  47. 

Theosophical  Society,  members  of,  20,  21, 
293. 

Theosophical  Society,  members  of  not  ne- 
cessarily Theosophists,  20,  21,  53,  55, 
237,  269. 

Theosophical  Society,  mistakes  concern- 
ing the,  254. 

Theosophical  Society,  motto  of  the,  3. 

Theosophical  Society,  objects  of,  20,  38, 
40,  41,  47,  48,  253. 

Theosophical  Society,  original  program 
of,  253. 

Theosophical  Society,  pledged  members 
of,  21. 

Theosophical    Society,   policy   of,   5. 


Theosophical  Society,  not  political,  227. 
Theosophical     Society,    prejudice    against 

the,  267. 
Theosophical    Society,    reorganization    of, 

251. 
Theosophical  Society  and  social  questions, 

228,  229,  230,  231,  232. 
Theosophical    Society    the    storehouse    of 

truths,  57. 
Theosophical  Society  and  Theosophy,  52, 

53,  54,  55,  56,  57,  237,  245. 
Theosophical  Society,  what  it  is  not,  17. 
Theosophical  Society,  work  of,  40,  247. 
Theosophical    Society,    working    members 

of,  49,  56,  247,  254,  275. 
Theosophists,   5,  7,  9,   11,  20,  21,  26,   52, 

66,  67,  72,  218,  226,  230,  285. 
Theosophy,  1,  2,  3,  11,  12,  13,  57,  58,  292. 
Theosophy,  acceptance  of,  35. 
Theosophy,  age  of,  2,  5,  9,  13,  36. 
Theosophy,  aim  of,  5,  6,  25,  213. 
Theosophy,  not  to  be  bought,  275. 
Theosophy  and  Buddhism,  14,  15,  16. 
Theosophy  and  Christian    theology,     154, 

214. 
Theosophy,  both    scientific    and    religious, 

19. 
Theosophy,  definition  of,  11,  12. 
Theosophy,  division  of  principles  in,  90. 
Theosophy,  doctrines   of,    16,    17,   42,   61, 

122,  214,  229,  244. 
Theosophy,  eclectic,  2,  3,  4. 
Theosophy,  efficacy  of,  42. 
Theosophy,  ethics  of,  15,  38,  48,  224. 
Theosophy,  Everlasting   Truth,   292. 
Theosophy  for  the  masses,  241,  242,  243. 
Theosophy,  mediaeval,  22,  105. 
Theosophy,  meaning  of  name,  1,  2. 
Theosophy,      misconceptions      concerning, 

244. 
Theosophy,  Nature  and  man  according  to, 

82. 


382 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


Theosophy  and  Occultism,  26. 
Theosophy,  practical,    20,    223,    234,    235, 

236,  260. 
Theosophy,  propaganda,  18,  20,  47,  48. 
Theosophy  the  quintessence  of  duty,  225. 
Theosophy,  rejection  of,  37. 
Theosophy  and  religions,  58. 
Theosophy  not  a  revelation,  36. 
Theosophy,  object  of,  2. 
Theosophy,  scientific,  27. 
Theosophy,  secret,  13. 
Theosophy,  seriousness  of,  267. 
Theosophy  and  Spiritualism,  28,  33. 
Theosophy  unfamiliar  and  abstruse,  38. 
Theosophy,  why  unknown  to  the  West,  13. 
Therapeutae,  6. 
Theurgy,  3,  22. 
Thinking  beings,   123. 
Thinking,  conscious  Ego,  107. 
Thinking  Ego,  138. 
Thinking  entity,  84,   174,   176,   180. 
Thinking  man,  89,   134,   185,  257. 
Thinking  principle,  117,  143,  172,  174. 
Thinking  soul,  74. 
Thought,  64,  125,  129,  138,  139,  181,  196, 

201,  211,  226,  233. 
Thought-transference,  279,  281. 
Thread,  golden,   161. 
Thread,  shining,   102. 
Thread  soul,  161. 

Three  accepted  forms  of  memory,  123. 
Three  aspects  of  being,  171. 
Three  aspects  of  soul,  120. 
Three  chief  aspects  in  man,   117. 
Three  kinds  of  sleep,  146,  168. 
Three  lower  principles,  142. 
Three  principles,  82,  89,   116. 
Three  propositions    of    "  M.  A.,    Oxon.," 

151,  152. 
Threshold  of  Devachan,  139. 
Thumos,  94,  95,  96,  114. 
Timaeus  of  Locris,  104. 


Time,  87. 

Tingley,  Katherine,  39,  40,  50,  251. 
To  Agathon,  95,  97. 
Tolerance,  60. 
Tolstoi,  Count  Leo,  239. 
Tradition,  48. 

Training,  212,  228,  253,  256,  266. 
Trance,  29,  31,  131. 
Transfiguration,  93. 
Transmutation,  spiritual,  68. 
Tree  of  Knowledge,   58. 
Tree  of  Life,  58. 
Triad,  91,  96,  98,  142,  181,  183. 
Trinity,  67,  107. 
Triple  unity,   167. 

True  doctrine  forever  preserved,  19. 
True  science,  23. 

Truth,  14,  36,  45,  46,  57,  58,  59,  85,  146, 
147,    151,    188,   226,   250,   292,   293,   295. 
Twentieth  century,  295. 
Twenty-first  century,  295. 
Two  kinds  of  conscious  existence,  164. 
Two  principles  in  man,  119. 

u 

Ultimate  cause,    198. 

Ultimate  law,  198. 

Unbelief,  effect  of,  167,  168. 

Unconditioned  reality,   164. 

Unconscious  muscular  action,  191. 

Unconsciousness,  64,  84. 

Understanding,  96,  98. 

Unerring  law,  139,  198. 

Union,  22,  102,  113,  206. 

Union  of  spirit  and  matter,  215. 

Unit,   self-moving,  94. 

Unity,  6,   17,  26,  45,  47,  62,  65,  82,   102, 

153,  166,  167,  295. 
Universal  All,  120. 
Universal  Brotherhood,  17,  20,  40,  41,  45, 

46,  47,  229,  230,  231,  238,  252,  293. 
Universal   Brotherhood   and  Theosophical 


THE    KEY    TO    THEOSOPHY 


383 


Society,  40,  60,   251.     {See   also   Theo- 

sophical  Society) 
Universal  causation,  229,  233. 
Universal  consciousness,  215. 
Universal  deity,  65,  71,  178,  196. 
Universal  divine   principle,   63. 
Universal  essence,  70,   113. 
Universal  harmony,  201. 
Universal  individuality,  215. 
Universal  infinite  Ego,  109. 
Universal  law,  109,  195. 
Universal  life,  167,  173. 
Universal  mind,  101,  109,  132,  133,  180. 
Universal  mind-soul,  132. 
Universal  night,  83. 
Universal  self,  67,   171,   172. 
Universal  soul,   3,   74,    105,    109,    112,    132, 

158. 
Universal  spirit,  30,  91,  101,  106,  116,  130, 

215. 
Universal  unity  and  causation,  229. 
Universal  World-Soul,  104. 
Universally  diffused  divine  principle,  133. 
Universe,  53,  63,  65,  66,  76.  82,  84,  88,  94, 

118,   158,   173,   175,   180,   186,   198,  217. 
Universities,  264. 

Unknowable.  66,  99,  198,  207,  216. 
Unknown  Principle,  178,  216. 
Unmerited  misery,  35. 
Unmerited  suffering,  159. 
Unspiritual  age,  our,  38. 
Upanishads,  162. 
Upper  triad,  {see  Triad). 


Vacchagotta,  80. 

Vallabhacharya  sect,  274. 

Vanity,  25,  247,  249. 

Vedana,  128. 

Vedanta,  5,  45,  116. 

J^eddnta  Sara,  157. 

Vedantins,  62,   116,    120,  217,  218. 


Vegetarianism,   254,   255,   256,   257. 
Vehicle,  53,  90,  91,  95,  100,  1(M,  109,  117, 

118,  119,  128,  134,  142,  172. 
Veil  of  Maya,  147. 

Vicarious  atonement,  104,  196,  209,  219. 
Vice,  96,  226. 
Vidya,  15. 

Vine,  parable  of,  183,  187. 
Vines,  seven,  184. 
Vinnana,   128. 
Virtue,  96,  111,  226. 
Vision,  Visions,  4,  85,   124,   162,  163,  169, 

181,  211. 
Vital  double,    117. 
Vital  principle,  90. 
Vital  soul,  74,  117. 
Voice  of  conscience,  135,  185,  236,  246. 

W 

Wagner,  14. 

Waking  state,  116.  162,  163,  165,  167. 

Walker,  E.  D.,  131,  205. 

IVheel  of  the  Lazv,  196,  217. 

Whitechapel,  235,  239. 

Wilder,  Prof.  Alex.,  2,  4,  5,  8,  12,  216. 

Will,  66,  68,  179,  256,  261. 

Will-power,  68,  256. 

Will-prayer,  66,  68. 

Wine,  effect  of,  258. 

Wisdom,  1,  2,  4,  7,  8,  12,  14,  37,  56,  77, 
90,  101,  108,  109,  110,  157,  195,  255, 
292. 

Wisdom,  Amun,  the  God  of,  2. 

Wisdom,  Eastern,  88. 

Wisdom-Religion,  5,  6,  8,  9,  14,  15,  17, 
44,  60,  67. 

Witchcraft,  190,  282. 

Wordsworth,  124. 

Work  of  members  of  Theosophical  So- 
ciety, 40,  246. 

Working  hypotheses,  86,  127. 

Working  of  Karma,  211. 


384 


THE    KEY    TO    THBOSOPHY 


World-Karma,  199. 
World,  real,   176. 
World-Soul,  104. 
World,   spiritual,   156,   178. 


Yoga,  4. 


Yogis,  12,  25,  162. 


Zenobia,  9. 

Zohar,  23,  106,  110,  111,  184. 
Zoroaster,  48. 
Zoroastrians,  93. 


'There    is    no   Religion    Higher   than    Truth.' 


Ci)e 
aniDet0aI   15tot!)etf)ooD    anD    Cfjeosopfjical    ^ocietp 


Established  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  the  earth  and  all  creatures 


OBJECTS 

This  BROTHERHOOD  is  part  of  a  great  and  universal  movement  which 
has  been  adive   in  all   ages. 

This  Organization  declares  that  Brotherhood  is  a  fad.  Its  principal  purpose 
is  to  teach  Brotherhood,  demonstrate  that  it  is  a  fad  in  nature  and  make  it  a 
living  power  in  the  life  of  humanity. 

Its  subsidiary  purpose  is  to  study  ancient  and  modern  religions,  science, 
philosophj'  and  art;  to  investigate  the  laws  of  nature  and  the  divine  powers  in 
man. 


The  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical  Society,  founded  by  H.  P. 
Blavatsky  in  New  York,  1875,  continued  after  her  death  under  the  leadership 
of  the  co-founder,  William  Q.  Judge,  and  now  under  the  leadership  of  their 
successor,  Katherine  Tingley,  has  its  Headquarters  at  the  International  Theo- 
sophical  Center,    Point   Loma,   California. 

This  Organization  is  not  in  any  way  conneded  with  nor  does  it  endorse  any 
other   societies   using  the   name   of   TheosophJ^ 

*  *  * 

The  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical  Society  welcomes  to  mem- 
bership all  who  truly  love  their  fellow  men  and  desire  the  eradication  of  the 
evils  caused  by  the  barriers  of  race,  creed,  caste,  or  color,  which  have  so  long 
impeded  human  progress ;  to  all  sincere  lovers  of  truth  and  to  all  who  aspire 
to  higher  and  better  things  than  the  mere  pleasures  and  interests  of  a  worldly 
life,  and  are  prepared  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  make  Brotherhood  a  living 
energy  in  the  life  of  humanity,  its  various  departments  offer  unlimited  oppor- 
tunities. 

The  whole  work  of  the  Organization  is  under  the  dircc'tion  of  the  Leader 
and  Official   Head,  Katherine  Tingley,  as  outlined  in  the  Constitution. 


Do  Not  Fail  to  Profit  by  the  Following 

It  is  a  regrettable  fad  that  many  people  use  the  name  of  Theosophy  and  of 
our  Organization  for  self-interest,  as  also  that  of  H.  P.  Blavatsky,  the  Foundress, 
to  attrad  attention  to  themselves  and  to  gain  public  support.  This  they  do  in 
private  and  public  speech  and  in  publications,  also  by  leduring  throughout  the 
country.  Without  being  in  any  way  conneded  with  the  Universal  Brother- 
hood AND  Theosophical  SOCIETY,  in  many  cases  they  permit  it  to  be  inferred 
that  they  are,  thus  misleading  the  public,  and  many  honest  inquirers  are  hence 
led  away  from  the  truths  of  Theosophy  as  presented  by  H.  P.  Blavatsky  and 
her  successors  William  Q.  Judge  and  Katherine  Tingley,  and  pradically  ex- 
emplified in  their  Theosophical  work  for  the  uplifting  of  humanity. 


The  International  Brotherhood  League 

(Founded  in  1897  by  Katherine  Tingley) 

OBJECTS 

1.  To  help  men  and  women  to  realize  the  nobility  of  their  calling  and  their 
true  position  in  life. 

2.  To  educate  children  of  all  nations  on  the  broadest  lines  of  Universal 
Brotherhood ;  and  to  prepare  destitute  and  homeless  children  to  become 
workers   for  humanity. 

3.  To  ameliorate  the  condition  of  unfortunate  women,  and  assist  them 
to  a  higher  life. 

4.  To  assist  those  who  are,  or  have  been  in  prisons,  to  establish  themselves 
in  honorable  positions  in  life. 

5.  To   abolish   capital    punishment. 

6.  To  bring  about  a  better  understanding  between  so-called  savage  and 
civilized  races,  by  promoting  a  closer  and  more  sympathetic  relationship 
between   them. 

7.  To  relieve  human  suffering  resulting  from  flood,  famine,  war,  and  other 
calamities;  and,  generally,  to  extend  aid,  help,  and  comfort  to  suffering  humanity 
throughout  the  world. 

For    further   information   regarding   the   above    Notices,   address 

KATHERINE  TINGLEY, 

International    Theosophical    Headquarters, 

Point  Loma.  California 


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No.   10     The    Astral    Light  No.   18     Sons   of  the   Firemist:    a    Study 
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Thought-Transference 

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SWEDISH 

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Studier  over   Bhagavad  Gita    (William  Q.   Judge) 

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OvNiNG  I  Koncentration   (William  Q.  Judge) 

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